Vance Street Capital has formed Fermatex Vascular Technologies and has acquired two manufacturing facilities and related operations located in Wall Township, NJ from W. L. Gore, a multinational manufacturing company specializing in products derived from fluoropolymers.
The Wall Township operation – originally known as Adam Spence Corporation – was part of the Medical Products Division of W.L. Gore. The acquired facilities design and manufacture high pressure braided tubing and extrusions that are used in the cardiovascular device market. W.L. Gore acquired Adam Spence Corporation in 2004.
Vance Street has experience building and managing middle-market engineering and manufacturing companies, and has direct knowledge of the medical tubing and catheter industry. Mike Janish, a Partner at Vance Street, and John LeRosen, a Principal at Vance Street, were previously the CEO and CFO, respectively, of Avalon Laboratories. Avalon Laboratories is a manufacturer of catheters and medical tubing products that are used in cardiology and pulmonology applications. The company was acquired by Nordson (NYSE: NDSN) in August 2014.
“Fermatex provides an exciting platform for growth and enables us to partner with a strong team with world-class capabilities in the manufacturing of complex medical catheter components,” said Mr. Janish. “This latest acquisition will enable us to leverage Vance Street’s considerable expertise and relationships and create a world-class catheter engineering and manufacturing company.”
Vance Street makes control investments in companies with enterprise values of $30 million to $200 million and EBITDA of $5 million to $20 million. Sectors of interest include aerospace, defense, industrial, and medical. The firm is based in Los Angeles (www.vancestreetcapital.com).
“The Vance Street team was a strong partner throughout the course of this transaction and clearly demonstrated their experience in managing highly technical medical device businesses. We believe their team will continue to build on Gore’s strong performance and will position Fermatex and its employees for future success,” said David Lane, Business Leader at W. L. Gore.
W. L. Gore was founded in 1958 by Bill Gore and Vieve Gore and has annual revenues in excess of $3 billion. The company, one of the 200 largest privately held US companies, is headquartered in Newark, DE (www.gore.com).
Fermatex Vascular is the fourth platform investment in Vance Street’s second fund. In September 2017 it acquired R.S.T. Instruments, a manufacturer of geotechnical instrumentation and data systems headquartered near Vancouver in Maple Ridge, BC (www.rstinstruments.com); in February 2016 the firm acquired A&E Medical, a medical device manufacturing company based south of New York in Farmingdale, NJ (www.aemedical.com); and in September 2016 the firm acquired Motion Dynamics, a maker of components used in the medical device, industrial and aerospace markets that is based northwest of Grand Rapids in Fruitport, MI (www.motiondc.com).
PricewaterhouseCoopers was the financial advisor to W. L. Gore on this transaction.
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | October 6, 2017
