translation services

HKW Speaks Your Language

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Traductions Serge Bélair (TRSB), a portfolio company of HKW, has acquired Anglocom, a language services provider. The buy of Anglocom is the first add-on acquisition for TRSB since being acquired by HKW in December 2019.

Anglocom is a full-service translation company that provides French and English translators to its corporate customers in the advertising, government, ministries, financial institutions, universities, museums, and retailer sectors.

In addition to its translation services, the company also provides copy editing, proofreading and adaption (localization) services. Anglocom was founded in 1993 and is headquartered 160 miles northeast of Montreal in Quebec City.

Montreal-headquartered TRSB provides its translation services – in more than 100 languages – to corporate and institutional customers that are active in highly regulated verticals including finance, insurance, and life sciences. The company also provides additional services including copy editing and proofreading, desktop publishing, audio/video transcription, subtitling and voiceover.

TRSB, founded in 1987 by Serge Bélair, has more than 250 employees and is led by CEO Mary Kazamias.

“We are proud to welcome Anglocom to the TRSB family,” said Ms. Kazamias. “Anglocom’s talent and professionalism align well with TRSB and strengthens our service offering. We are excited by how the expansion of services can benefit our clients.”

“The partnership between TRSB and Anglocom further compliments TRSB’s footprint in the translation industry,” said Michael Terrell, a senior associate at HKW. “As the first add-on acquisition for TRSB, this supports our M&A growth strategy to fulfill client demand in the translation industry.”​​​​​

HKW (formerly Hammond, Kennedy, Whitney & Company) invests in companies in the business services and health & wellness sectors that have EBITDA between $5 million and $30 million. In October 2019, the firm announced a final above-target close of HKW Capital Partners V LP with total commitments of $365 million. Since 1982, HKW has acquired 64 North America-based lower middle-market platform companies and closed 71 add-on acquisitions. The firm was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Indianapolis with an additional office in New York City.

Private Equity Professional | May 25, 2021

Northern Pacific Forms Translation Platform

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Northern Pacific Group has acquired Merrill Brink International, the languages services division of Merrill Corporation, and completed the add-on acquisition of KJ International Resources. The operations of these companies will be housed in United Language Group, a new platform company formed by Northern Pacific. Yukon Partners and Hamilton Lane provided mezzanine capital and acquired minority equity positions in United Language Group to back Northern Pacific.

With these two acquisitions, United Language Group (ULG) will have approximately $50 million in annual revenues, immediately ranking it among the top 25 language services companies worldwide and sixth in the US. Northern Pacific intends to add-on complementary companies with the goal of creating one of the largest language service providers in the world.

“We’re excited about this investment in the language business and we see tremendous opportunities for growth, both organically and through further acquisitions. We expect to be very active in this highly fragmented $40 billion industry,” said Peter Offenhauser, Partner at Northern Pacific Group.

Northern Pacific Group invests in companies with $10 million to $100 million in revenues that are active in the technology and business services sectors. In addition to United Language Group, the firm has three other platforms: Delaget, a SaaS provider of restaurant data technologies acquired in March 2015; Outsell, a SaaS provider of digital marketing services used by automotive brands acquired in March 2015; and Renters Warehouse, a provider of outsourced property management services acquired in September 2015. Northern Pacific is based in the Minneapolis suburb of Wayzata (www.northernpacificgroup.com).

Northern Pacific partnered on this transaction with language services veterans Jeff Brink and Hans Fenstermacher. Jeff Brink and Greg Brink founded Merrill Brink as PH Brink International in 1987 and sold the business to Merrill Corporation in 2005.

Today, Merrill Brink services include document translation, machine translation, website conversion, desktop publishing, testing services, proofreading, linguistic validation, e-Learning translation, and technical translation. Merrill Brink’s customers include multi-national companies in industries such as life sciences, manufacturing, travel, and hospitality, as well as governmental entities and law firms. The company has offices in St. Paul, New York, London, Galway and Hong Kong (www.merrillbrink.com).

KJ International is also provider of translation services. Customers are active in the medical and technical industries – such as biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical devices – and other industries subject to a high level of oversight and regulation. KJ International is headquartered in Minneapolis (www.kjinternational.com).

“We are thrilled to launch our strategy with the acquisition of Merrill Brink and KJ,” said Jeff Brink, CEO of ULG. “We view ULG as an ideal platform for our expansion plans, which include additional near-term acquisitions.”

Yukon makes subordinated debt and equity investments of $10 million to $40 million in middle-market, private equity sponsored acquisitions. The firm invests in buyouts, growth and platform strategies, recapitalizations, mergers & acquisitions, public- to-private buyouts, and refinancings. Yukon Partners is headquartered in Minneapolis (www.yukonpartners.com).

Hamilton Lane is an alternative investment management firm with more than $33 billion in discretionary assets under management and an additional $191 billion in advisory assets.  The firm is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices throughout the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia (www.hamiltonlane.com).

Bell Capital Finance provided senior debt to support the transactions. Backbone Capital Advisors (www.backbonecap.com), a provider of capital sourcing services based in Studio City, CA, assisted in the arrangement of debt financing. Fredrikson & Byron (www.fredlaw.com) served as legal counsel to Northern Pacific.

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