Shore Capital Partners has sold Argentum Medical, a manufacturer of wound care products, to BioDerm, a portfolio company of Mountaingate Capital.
Argentum’s product lines include surgical, burn care, wound care, negative wound pressure therapy, dressings for IVs and catheters, and antimicrobial skin and wound cleansers. The company’s core brand is Silverlon which uses a silver-plated nylon matrix that provides the antimicrobial properties of silver ions to wound dressings.
Argentum’s customers include the US military, international accounts in over 30 countries, and approximately 2,000 domestic hospitals. The company, led by CEO Raul Brizuela, was founded in 2001 and is headquartered near Chicago in Geneva, Illinois.
Mr. Brizuela will serve as the CEO of the combined BioDerm/Argentum platform with its senior management team comprised of executives from both companies. Later this year, the company will look to rebrand and establish a new name that reflects the strengths of the Argentum and BioDerm portfolios of products.
Shore Capital acquired Argentum in August 2017. “Shore Capital was an invaluable partner committed to the success of Argentum and its team,” said Mr. Brizuela. “Together, we aspired to improve the quality of service and outcomes for patients, while decreasing the cost of care and mitigating risk. I am thrilled to see the impact of our products and look forward to furthering these results in our next stage of growth.”
BioDerm is a provider of disposable medical devices and wound care supplies. The company’s products are used for urinary management, securement, infection control and skin protection. BioDerm’s external catheter products are sold under the Men’s Liberty brand (for home use) and Men’s Liberty Acute brand (for institutional and hospital use). BioDerm’s other products include CathGrip adhesive securement products, FreeDerm adhesive remover, and BioPlus skin preparation wipes.
BioDerm also provides wound care dressing change kits to patients with ventricular assist devices (mechanical pumps used to support heart function and blood flow). BioDerm, led by CEO Gaet Tyranski, was founded in 1991 and is headquartered near Tampa in Largo, Florida.
BioDerm was acquired by Mountaingate in December 2020 as its tenth platform investment for its debut fund which closed in August 2017 at an oversubscribed hard cap of $395 million.
“The combination of Argentum and BioDerm accelerates our strategy to innovate patient care with sophisticated technologies and expand our growth in the wound care and international markets,” said Stew Fisher, a managing director at Mountaingate. “The two companies share a common culture focused on improving patient outcomes through innovation and ingenuity, while also providing industry leading levels of customer support.”
Denver-based Mountaingate invests in companies that have from $5 million to $25 million in EBITDA and are active in the marketing services, specialty manufacturing, specialty distribution, and business services sectors at an oversubscribed hard cap of $395 million.
“Shore Capital is immensely proud of what Raul and the management team built,” said Don Pierce, a partner at Shore and the chairman of Argentum. “We are excited for Argentum to continue providing significant value to the healthcare system as an international industry leader in infection prevention management.”
Shore Capital invests in lower middle-market healthcare, food and beverage, business services, and real estate-related companies that have $5 million to $100 million of revenue.
In April 2019, Shore closed its third healthcare-focused fund, Shore Capital Healthcare Partners Fund III LP, with $293 million of capital, and its inaugural food and beverage fund, Shore Capital Food & Beverage Partners Fund I LP, with $148 million of capital. Shore Capital is headquartered in Chicago and has more than $3 billion of equity under management.
Moelis & Company was the financial advisor to Argentum on this transaction.
© 2023 Private Equity Professional | February 9, 2023
