MidOcean Partners has made a significant investment in The Planet Group, a provider of outsourced human capital and consulting services. MidOcean’s investment is in partnership with the existing management team and both founders, CEO Michael Stomberg and CFO Timothy Bauwens, are retaining a significant stake in the company.
The Planet Group consists of six related entities (Planet Pharma, Planet Forward, Planet Healthcare, PFES, UXFactory and Planet Interactive) that provide (i) outsourced human capital services and niche consulting services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies; and (ii) engineers, project managers and project control professionals to utility, manufacturing, oil & gas, power engineering and technology companies. The Planet Group was founded in 2009 and is headquartered near Chicago in Western Springs, IL. The company has two additional Chicago locations and offices in Cleveland, OH; Durham, NC; San Francisco, CA; Birmingham, UK, and London, UK (www.theplanetforward.com).
MidOcean has previously invested in the outsourced human capital industry. In December 2012 it acquired System One, one of the largest professional staffing firms in the US with over 6,000 employees serving the engineering, clinical/scientific, IT, and legal markets. MidOcean sold System One in October 2016 to Thomas H. Lee Partners. In October 2011 MidOcean acquired Global Knowledge, a provider of IT training to corporate clients, which was sold in January 2015 to Rhône Capital.
“MidOcean has tremendous resources and experience building successful business services platforms with founder-owned businesses and a deep understanding of the professional staffing industry which makes them an ideal partner for Planet,” said Mike Stomberg, Planet Co-Founder and CEO. “This partnership with MidOcean will enable us to dedicate additional resources to build out our existing infrastructure and expand Planet’s offerings into other professional service areas both organically and through add-on acquisitions. We have been very impressed with MidOcean’s collaborative approach to developing and helping implement a growth strategy for Planet. Together, we will be able to take Planet to the next level.”
“We are very excited to partner with Mike Stomberg and Tim Bauwens who are proven leaders in the outsourced human capital space,” said Elias Dokas, Managing Director at MidOcean. “Planet has built an impressive business that has experienced strong growth and we believe there are a number of opportunities to expand the company’s service offering into other attractive, high margin professional service areas. In addition, with increased scale and resources, Planet can offer an even greater level of service to all of its customers across its various end markets.”
MidOcean invests in middle market companies that are active in the business and consumer services sectors. The firm was founded in 2003 and is based in New York (www.midoceanpartners.com).
Investment bank FocalPoint Partners (www.focalpointllc.com) was the financial advisor to The Planet Group.
© 2018 Private Equity Professional | January 22, 2018
