Clearlake Capital Group has agreed to acquire BakeMark from Pamplona Capital Management.
BakeMark is a manufacturer and distributor of bakery ingredients and supplies including mixes, fillings, icings, glazes, commodities (eggs, flour, and dairy), frozen products and bakery supplies. The company serves approximately 1,200 suppliers and about 19,000 retail bakery, in-store bakery, wholesale bakery, and foodservice operators, local independent bakeries and national coffeehouses and donut chains across the United States and Canada. Company-owned brands include Westco, Trigal Dorado, Best Brands, BakeSense, BakeQwik, C’est Vivant, and Sprinkelina.
BakeMark has 5 manufacturing facilities, 29 distribution centers, and approximately 1,000 employees. The company, led by CEO Jim Parker, is headquartered near Los Angeles in Pico Rivera, California.
Pamplona acquired the BakeMark business of CSM Bakery Solutions, a portfolio company of Rhône Capital, in August 2017.
“Today marks an exciting new chapter in BakeMark’s history,” said Mr. Parker. “Since acquiring the business in 2017, Pamplona has been a trusted and supportive partner, helping to guide BakeMark’s management team through a successful period of sustained growth. Clearlake’s operational insights and experience in the food and beverage sector will accelerate that growth and support our commitment to deliver the best quality products and services for our customers.”
“It has been an absolute pleasure working with Jim and his team to establish BakeMark as an independent platform and to aggressively grow the business into the clear market leader in the bakery distribution space through both organic initiatives and add-on acquisitions,” said William Pruellage, a co-managing partner at Pamplona. “We wish BakeMark and Clearlake continued success in the next chapter of growth.”
“We are thrilled to partner with BakeMark and support the company in its next stage of accelerated growth,” said José Feliciano, a co-founder and managing partner at Clearlake. “The BakeMark investment is a natural extension of Clearlake’s deep experience investing in both the food & beverage and distribution & logistics ecosystems.
“We believe long-term market tailwinds, including increased focus on supply chain simplification and growing demand for ethnic and specialty bakery products, offer a unique opportunity to invest behind a category leader like BakeMark,” added Arta Tabaee, a managing director at Clearlake. “We are eager to support the management team and bring together all of Clearlake’s available resources to drive value creation, accelerate organic growth, and create an industry consolidation platform.”
Clearlake invests in industrials and energy; software and technology-enabled services; and consumer sectors. The firm was co-founded by Mr. Feliciano and Behdad Eghbali in 2006 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California with an additional office in Dallas, Texas. In April 2020, Clearlake held a hard cap and oversubscribed final close of its sixth private equity fund, Clearlake Capital Partners VI LP, with more than $7 billion in commitments. Clearlake currently has approximately $39 billion of assets under management.
Pamplona makes direct private equity, fund of hedge funds, and single-manager hedge fund investments. The firm manages over $11 billion in assets across several funds for a variety of clients including public pension funds, international wealth managers, multinational corporations, family offices, and funds of hedge funds. Pamplona was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in London and New York City.
Harris Williams and Houlihan Lokey were the financial advisors to Pamplona, and Credit Suisse advised Clearlake. Credit Suisse is leading the financing for the acquisition along with Deutsche Bank and BMO Capital Markets.
© 2021 Private Equity Professional | July 22, 2021
Aperture, a portfolio company of Trinity Hunt Partners, has acquired American Bio Engineers. This is the third add-on acquisition completed by Aperture since its formation by Trinity Hunt in 2019.
“We are excited to welcome our new American Bio colleagues to the Aperture team,” said Mr. Joyce. “We are humbled to have someone of Brian’s professionalism, expertise, and experience join us as we continue to build the Aperture forensic engineering service offering across the country, and we look forward to working with the American Bio team during our journey ahead. Their addition to the team significantly expands the value we can bring to our clients.”
“Aperture’s partnership with American Bio adds yet another preeminent forensic engineering services group to the Aperture platform,” said Pete Stein, a managing partner at Trinity Hunt. “We look forward to further supporting the company as it continues to grow and provide exceptional service quality for our clients and extraordinary work experience for our employees.”
Dallas-based 
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) is assembling a label-making giant with the buys of Fort Dearborn Company from Advent International and Multi-Color Corporation from Platinum Equity.
Fort Dearborn, led by CEO Kevin Kwilinski, is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove and operates out of 20 locations across the United States (18) and Canada (2). Advent International acquired Fort Dearborn from KRG Capital Partners in August 2016.
At the closing of this transaction, David Scheible, an operating advisor to CD&R and current member of Fort Dearborn’s board of directors, will lead the combined company as its chairman.
“We see strong strategic logic and promising value creation potential in bringing these two leading label manufacturers together,” said Nate Sleeper, CEO of CD&R. “We look forward to working with the combined company’s leadership team to help drive innovation and enhance its offering to a highly discerning customer base around the world. We see numerous opportunities to drive operational scale, achieve sustained growth, and we believe our expertise can help position the combined company for success well into the future.”
RST/Measurand, a portfolio company of Vance Street Capital, has acquired 3vGeomatics, a provider of radar and image-based detection and measurement services.
Measurand is a Fredericton, New Brunswick-based manufacturer of geotechnical instrumentation used to measure the deformation of soil and structures in mines, tailings ponds, bridges, tunnels, dams and levees.
“As critical asset owners continue to look for ways to enhance the monitoring of their underlying assets, 3vG’s InSAR technology will play a key role in those efforts,” said Steve Sandbo, a principal at Vance Street. “The combination of RST/Measurand’s connected instrumentation and cloud-based data systems with 3vG’s InSAR will provide customers with a holistic monitoring solution that is unmatched in the market.”
Los Angeles-based 
EQT Private Equity has agreed to sell Aldevron, a producer of nucleic acids and proteins, to Danaher Corporation for $9.6 billion. EQT acquired a majority stake in Aldevron in July 2019 from TA Associates.
“Aldevron is integral to the development and supply of new types of therapies that address previously uncurable medical conditions,” said Eric Liu, a partner and co-head of healthcare at EQT. “We are proud to have supported Aldevron and its mission to deliver the highest quality products that help improve patient lives across the world.”
Artemis Capital Partners, in partnership with Abacus Finance Group, has acquired Maury Microwave.
“At Artemis, we have long believed that innovation in high-frequency RF technologies – including the test, measurement, and interconnect devices that enable it – is accelerating larger, long-term, improvements in human connectivity, security, and mobility. For that reason, we have also long known of Maury Microwave – based on its respected reputation and formidable position as a rare, broad-line, RF technology player in the middle market,” said Mr. Ward.
“As in other transactions, our success was a function of our speed, flexibility, and certainty of close – key aspects of what we call our Total Partnership Approach,” said Tim Clifford, the president and CEO of Abacus. The Total Partnership Approach is the firm’s 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.
Boston-based 
Unifrax, a portfolio company of Clearlake Capital, has agreed to acquire publicly traded Lydall at an enterprise value of approximately $1.3 billion. Clearlake acquired Unifrax from American Securities in October 2018.
“We are excited about the combination of Lydall and Unifrax. With this transaction, we are creating a leader in specialty filtration and advanced materials with over 250 years of combined expertise and experience delivering innovative and compelling solutions to customers worldwide,” said Ms. Greenstein.
“We have long admired Lydall and what it would bring to our platform investment in Unifrax, and we could not be more excited about partnering with the company and its team to build one of the world’s leading global specialty materials platforms,” said Managing Partner José Feliciano and Partner Colin Leonard in a released statement. “We have supported Unifrax’s development of new technologies over the last few years that have the potential to change how we think about the industries in which both Unifrax and Lydall operate and inform their futures. The addition of Lydall to the Unifrax portfolio and its strong capabilities in advanced filtration creates a global platform with significant scale that together can accelerate each company’s respective compelling growth plans.”
Clearlake invests in industrials and energy; software and technology-enabled services; and consumer sectors. The firm was co-founded by Mr. Feliciano and Behdad Eghbali in 2006 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California with an additional office in Dallas, Texas.
Platinum Equity has agreed to acquire a majority stake in SVP-Singer Holdings (“SVP Worldwide”), the world’s largest consumer sewing machine company.
“Carl-Martin, Stan and the entire SVP Worldwide team have done an excellent job refocusing the business and setting the stage for the next chapter,” said Jason Price, a managing director at Platinum. “We fully support the investments they’ve made, and we will bring additional financial and operational resources to bear to help accelerate their efforts.”
EverArc Holdings, a publicly-listed acquisition company, has agreed to acquire Perimeter Solutions, a portfolio company of SK Capital, in a transaction valued at approximately $2 billion.
“We have been delighted to partner with the management and employees of Perimeter over these past three years,” said Aaron Davenport, a managing director of SK Capital. “Since our acquisition, we have successfully transitioned what was previously a non-core segment within a public company into a thriving standalone organization, with an uncompromising commitment to the highest quality, safety, and reliability standards. The company has grown significantly during our ownership, driven by investments in innovation and commercial excellence, as well as five highly strategic add-on acquisitions.”
“Perimeter’s comprehensive, safe and effective wildfire prevention and suppression technology is more critical than ever as the severity of wildfires, unfortunately, shows a steady increase around the world,” said Haitham Khouri, a founder of EverArc. “As a public company, Perimeter will have even greater, long-term access to additional debt and equity capital, and we look forward to partnering with Eddie and the rest of Perimeter’s talented team in the company’s next phase of growth.”
Rotunda Capital Partners has formed 
“This transaction continues Rotunda’s foundation of acquiring family and founder-owned companies and partnering with strong management teams,” said Corey Whisner, a partner at Rotunda. “We look forward to working alongside management to leverage the combined company’s geographic footprint and comprehensive solution capabilities to expand upon its existing value-proposition, while also accelerating expansion into new geographies and markets.”
“Over the last half-century, American Equipment’s team has built a leading regional equipment and service business and they are well-positioned for substantial future growth,” said Dan Lipson, a partner at Rotunda. “In addition to supporting the acquisitions of Pacific Crane & Hoist and Allied Crane, we are committed to helping the company build a business of national scale through both organic growth and additional acquisitions.”
“Rotunda has been looking for an investment in material handling distribution and service for some time,” said Ryan Aprill, a vice president at Rotunda. “The combination of American Equipment with Pacific Crane & Hoist and Allied Crane brings together more than 100 years of collective industry experience and creates the premier consolidation platform in the highly fragmented North American overhead crane and hoist market.”
