Lion Capital, a London-based private equity firm spun out of US buyout house Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst in January 2005, has acquired American Safety Razor, a shaving razor manufacturer, for $625m (€498m).

Lion has bought the business from Boston-based buyout firm JW Childs Associates, which has owned ASR for seven years. It is Lion's first deal outside Europe, which is the territory it originally decided to target.