Abacus Finance Group was the Administrative Agent and Sole Lead Arranger for $17.5 million in senior secured credit facilities to support the recent leveraged buyout of Zavation Medical Products by LongueVue Capital.
“I have nothing but praise – Abacus Finance lived up to its reputation by proving to be a very flexible and reliable partner,” said LongueVue Founding Partner Rick Rees. “Their turnaround was quick and the execution seamless.”
Abacus provides cash flow-based senior financing to private equity-sponsored, lower-middle market companies that have EBITDA between $3 million and $15 million. Debt facilities can be as large as $60 million with a typical hold size ranging from $10 million to $30 million. New York-based Abacus was formed in June 2011 and is an affiliate of New York Private Bank & Trust (www.abacusfinance.com).
Zavation designs, engineers, and manufactures a portfolio of spinal hardware used in thoracolumbar (the thoracic and lumbar regions of the spine), cervical, interbody fusion, and minimally invasive surgery. Other products include related medical instruments and micro-and-macro porous bone graft substitutes. Zavation’s products are sold through a network of more than 100 distributors in 35 states. The company has commercialized over 10 product families since its founding and has 10 additional products expected to launch over the next two years. Zavation, founded in 2010, has approximately 50 employees and operates a 24,000 square foot facility near Jackson in Flowood, MS (www.zavation.com).
“This was yet another new relationship for us, and we were impressed by the LongueVue team and the quality of the company they brought to us,” said Tim Clifford, President and CEO of Abacus.
LongueVue makes equity and debt investments in lower middle-market companies that have over $3 million of EBITDA and up to $150 million of annual revenue. Sectors of interest include business services, transportation and logistics, healthcare, energy services, and niche manufacturing. In March 2017, the firm held a final close of LongueVue Capital Partners III, LP. The new fund was oversubscribed and closed at its hard cap of $252 million. LongueVue was founded in 2001 and is based in New Orleans with additional offices in New York and Salt Lake City (www.lvcpartners.com).
“The Abacus team knows the medical device sector well,” said LongueVue Principal Ryan Nagim, “and was able to give us certainty of closure early in the process.”
“Rick’s and Ryan’s colleagues found early on that we are easy to work with and that our due diligence process flows smoothly – key aspects of what we call our Total Partnership Approach™. We look forward to working with them in the future,” said Eric Petersen, Senior Vice President at Abacus Finance.
Senior Associate Rafal Rydzewski also worked on this transaction for Abacus.
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | July 31, 2017
