Arsenal Capital Partners has sold Airnov Healthcare Packaging to Berwind-owned Colorcon. Arsenal formed Airnov in October 2019 to acquire the healthcare packaging business of Clariant for $312 million.
Airnov is a maker of barrier packaging used to protect pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and diagnostic products from moisture and oxygen. This includes customizable, drop-in products such as canisters and packets, desiccant systems, and specially designed plastic bottles containing oxygen barrier materials.
Airnov, led by President Matthias Brommer with 700 employees, has five manufacturing facilities in the United States, France, China, and India.
“We are grateful for the support of Arsenal over the past three years as we further established Airnov as the go-to solution provider in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and diagnostic industries,” said Mr. Brommer. “We are excited about Airnov’s next phase of growth and our new partnership with Colorcon.”
Colorcon is a developer, manufacturer, and distributor of pharmaceutical excipients and coatings used in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. Excipients are inactive substances that are added to medications to help in the formulation and delivery of the active drug substance. They are typically used as fillers, binders, lubricants, disintegrants, or preservatives in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products.
Examples of Colorcon’s products include film coatings that are applied to tablets and capsules to protect the active ingredient from moisture, light, and other environmental factors; and functional coatings that provide specific functional properties such as taste-masking, controlled-release, and enhanced stability.
Colorcon operates 11 manufacturing facilities, 25 technical service laboratories, and employs approximately 1,400 people. The company was founded in 1961 and acquired by Berwind in 1998. Colorcon is headquartered near Philadelphia in Harleysville, Pennsylvania.
“Airnov’s capabilities will be a strong complement to Colorcon’s existing portfolio,” said Simon Tasker, CEO of Colorcon. “Our partnership will allow for an increased level of technical, customer, and regulatory support to accelerate our customers’ product development and commercialization.”
“Following the carve-out of Airnov from its prior corporate parent, we were thrilled to work alongside a talented leadership team to implement, improve, and outperform our investment objectives,” said George Abd, an operating partner at Arsenal.
New York-headquartered Arsenal invests in middle-market specialty industrial and healthcare companies that have $100 million to $500 million of enterprise value. Since its founding in 2000, Arsenal has raised total capital of $10 billion, closed more than 275 platform and add-on acquisitions, and exited more than 30 portfolio companies.
Philadelphia-based Berwind, founded in 1886 as Berwind-White Coal Mining Company, is a fifth-generation, family-owned investment management company that invests in middle-market companies with transaction values of $200 million to $900 million across a range of industries.
William Blair & Company was the financial advisor to Airnov on this transaction.
© 2023 Private Equity Professional | March 8, 2023
