Abacus Finance Group has backed the recapitalization of LifeSpan Biosciences, a portfolio company of Thompson Street Capital Partners (TSCP). In addition to providing senior debt financing, Abacus also made an equity co-investment in the company.
LifeSpan Biosciences (LSBio) is a developer, manufacturer, and distributor of more than 75,000 SKUs of antibodies, reagents, proteins, assay kits, biochemicals, and other molecular biology products that are widely used in the academic and pharmaceutical research markets to investigate pathogens such as Coronaviruses, Influenza, Herpes viruses, Papillomaviruses, or Hepatitis viruses, and other viruses that cause human and animal diseases.
LSBio, led by CEO Heather Holemon, was founded in 1995 by Drs. Joseph Brown and Glenna Burmer and is headquartered in Seattle.
LSBio was acquired by TSCP in September 2018. In January of this year, LSBio completed the add-on acquisition of Absolute Antibody, a UK-based manufacturer and developer of recombinant antibodies used in the research and diagnostic markets, and its Boston-based sister company, Kerafast.
Abacus was the Administrative Agent and Sole Lead Arranger for the new senior secured credit facilities. “Once again, it was a pleasure to work with the Abacus team,” said Elizabeth Borow, a managing director at Thompson Street. “We were facing a critical deadline to place this financing, and once again Abacus delivered. I continue to be impressed by their speed of execution and ease of documentation. As always, they were responsive, flexible, easy to work with, and able to provide certainty of closure early. The result was a smooth transaction completed on time.”
“Our longstanding partnership with Thompson, which shares our lower middle-market focus, has become one of our best client relationships,” said Tim Clifford, the president and CEO of Abacus. “We know that when they come to us with a transaction, it will involve a high-quality company like LSBio.”
Abacus provides cash flow-based senior financing to private equity and family office-sponsored, lower-middle market companies that have EBITDA between $3 million and $15 million. Debt facilities can be as large as $50 million. Since its founding in June 2011, Abacus has closed over $2 billion in financings. The firm is headquartered in New York and is an affiliate of New York Private Bank & Trust which was founded in 1850.
“What is important to TSCP – in addition to speed and certainty of close – is our flexibility in structuring transactions and the emphasis we place on exceptional client service – all part of our Total Partnership Approach,” added Sean McKeever, a managing director and the COO of Abacus.
The Total Partnership Approach is Abacus’ operating strategy that merges its cash-flow financing expertise, deep industry knowledge and client service capabilities to give its private equity and family office-sponsors the certainty of close and transactional peace of mind.
In addition to Mr. Clifford and Mr. McKeever, Vice President Joseph Lee was part of the Abacus transaction team on the refinancing of LSBio.
TSCP invests in companies with EBITDA between $5 million and $25 million. Sectors of interest include healthcare and life science services, software and technology services, and business services and engineered products. In July 2018, the firm held a final closing of its fifth fund, Thompson Street Capital Partners V LP, at its hard cap of $1.15 billion.
© 2021 Private Equity Professional | April 15, 2021
