Branford Castle has closed the sale Pulse Veterinary Technologies (PulseVet) to publicly traded Zomedica for $70.9 million in cash.
PulseVet is a provider of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) devices that use acoustic energy to stimulate healing, particularly in ligament, tendon, or bony structures. PulseVet is used by veterinarians, particularly equine veterinarians, and has a large installed base of equipment worldwide.
Firing shock waves repeatedly at tissue creates microtrauma, which stimulates an increase in blood flow and new blood vessel formation in the target area. PulseVet, led by founder and CEO Adrian Lock, was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia with subsidiary operations in Japan.
“We greatly value the excellent partnership that we had with Branford,” said Mr. Lock. “It was a great “ride”, and they were instrumental in helping us grow to our fullest potential, well beyond our initial expectations.”
The PulseVet business employs a razor-razorblade economic model in which a customer buys a shock wave generator as capital equipment, along with replaceable therapy handpieces called “Trodes.” Each Trode has an expected life of forty to fifty therapy sessions. Once a Trode completes its useful life, the customer replaces it with a refurbished Trode. According to PulseVet, it is the market leader in the equine space with 1,500 systems actively in use globally.
Branford Castle acquired PulseVet in September 2019 from Thompson Street Capital Partners and added on to the business with the February 2021 buy of NeoPulse, a Swiss-based shock wave therapy device manufacturer; and in August 2021 acquired the shockwave therapy assets of Nucleus ProVets which brought in-house the North American distribution of the NeoPulse line.
“Working in conjunction with Branford, the company was able to double sales and triple EBITDA in only two years,” said Eric Korsten, a senior managing director at Branford Castle. “In addition, the steps that were taken to position PulseVet mean that Zomedica is buying an asset that we think has even greater growth potential than when we acquired the business.”
New York City-based Branford Castle invests in companies that have enterprise values of up to $100 million and EBITDAs of less than $15 million. Sectors of interest include consumer products and services, commercial distribution, industrials and specialty manufacturing, business services, and logistics.
Ann Arbor-based Zomedica (NYSE: ZOM) provides diagnostics and medical devices to the veterinary sector. The company held an initial public offering in March 2019. In addition to the newly acquired PulseVet product line, it markets and sells a line of animal blood testing kits under the TruForma brand.
Stifel was the financial advisor to Zomedica on this transaction and Cowen provided investment banking services to PulseVet.
© 2021 Private Equity Professional | October 12, 2021
Arlington Capital Partners has formed Stellant Systems to acquire the Electron Devices and Narda Microwave-West businesses of publicly traded L3Harris Technologies for $185 million in cash.
“I am thrilled to be leading the Stella organization and to be a part of the Arlington portfolio,” said Mr. Russell. “Our groundbreaking Space Nano-MPM product line, High Power Microwave products for force protection and base defense, and critical cancer radiotherapy treatment products, to name a few, illustrate Stellant’s ability to deliver frequency and power agile products to meet unique mission needs in the space, spectrum dominance, secure communications and medical markets.”
“Stellant is our latest platform enterprise in the space and defense markets and continues our tradition of investing behind industry leaders,” said Peter Manos, a managing partner at Arlington. “Stellant is well-positioned now as a standalone entity for continued growth which we would seek to accelerate through further organic and inorganic investments into the company. We are pleased to have completed this transaction in partnership with Paul and his team and are excited to build a leader in the defense electronics market.”
Chevy Chase, Maryland-based Arlington Capital was founded in 1999 and has completed over 90 acquisitions since its inception. Sectors of interest include government-regulated industries and adjacent markets including aerospace and defense; government services; and technology, healthcare, and business services. Arlington is currently investing out of Arlington Capital Partners V LP, a $1.7 billion fund that closed in June 2019. In February 2021, Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) made a non-voting minority equity investment in the firm.
“Stellant is an extremely unique asset within the defense electronics ecosystem,” said Ben Ramundo, a vice president at Arlington. “Stellant’s heritage, facilities, capabilities and credentials are unmatched, and we are eager to invest behind those qualifications to unlock the myriad of market opportunities available to the company.”
L3Harris is a provider of defense and commercial technologies used in space, air, land, sea and cyber applications. The Melbourne, Florida-headquartered company has approximately $18 billion in annual revenue and 47,000 employees, with customers in more than 100 countries.
PMC Capital Partners has sold StyroChem Canada to Epsilyte Holdings, a portfolio company of Balmoral Funds. PMC acquired StyroChem Canada from WinCup in August 2019.
“We are proud to have supported StyroChem’s management team’s vision for growth over the last few years and are pleased to have been part of creating an extensive line of EPS solutions to the foodservice, packaging, construction, casting and specialty applications with StyroChem. As we exit the investment, we wish the StyroChem team continued growth and success,” said Michel Tamer, a managing partner of PMC Capital.
Epsilyte is a producer of expandable polystyrene resin that is used in building insulation, cold-chain packaging, and personal safety equipment. In October 2020, Balmoral, in partnership with industry veteran Brad Crocker, acquired the Peru, Illinois-based expandable polystyrene business of Flint Hills Resources, a subsidiary of Koch Industries. At closing, the business was renamed Epsilyte.
“This acquisition enables Epsilyte to leverage its resources to continue improving its business and expanding its product portfolio. We are excited about the prospects to improve our ESG message and performance based on this exciting combination,” said David Shainberg a managing director at Balmoral.
Los Angeles-headquartered 
Middle market investor Aterian Investment Partners has closed its fourth fund, Aterian Investment Partners IV LP, with over $830 million of capital commitments.
