A spectacle.
What a nail-biter: Spectris’ board unanimously recommended Advent International’s £3.8  billion ($5.22 billion) bid (or about £4.4  billion enterprise value including debt) to take it private last week, only to turn around and accept KKR’s £4.7  billion bid a short while later. While Advent still technically has room to come back with a higher offer, it is unlikely.
At the end of the day, money won — despite Advent's storied history in the industrial sector.
Getting industrious.
Advent has been investing in industrials since the 1990s, using a unique combination of carve-out/reorganization and roll-up strategy. Here are the firm’s investments in manufacturing since 2020:
Was its strategy not a fit? No. For Spectris, its prime carve-out targets would be its Malvern Panalytical, HBK, and Kistler brands, as each has meaningful standalone brand equity and customer bases. Divestitures aren’t new for Spectris, either, as the company has been actively reshaping itself, selling off Omega Engineering and ESG Group in recent years.
When it comes to add-ons, Spectris is ripe for a roll-up strategy. With 14 patents to its name and a broad suite of products, add-ons in sensors or automation tech would make sense for the firm.
The edge.
Perhaps, in addition to the larger ticket price, Spectris was wooed by KKR’s numerous recent investments in the sector. KKR has invested in eight classic manufacturing assets since 2020 (compared with Advent’s five investments): Chase Corp, CIRCOR, CMC Packaging Automation, CoolIT Systems, Fortifi, Industrial Physics, Novaria Group, and Potter Global Technologies.
Advent International did not respond to request for comment.
We were on hiatus last week (we hope our American followers had a great long weekend!) — thank you for your patience. Here are some full and partial exits from the past two weeks for PE portcos, as well as some exits-to-be:
EQT sold its ownership in Eton, the Swedish luxury menswear brand, to a consortium of long-term investors, for an unknown amount, exiting an asset it initially acquired in 2020.
EQT announced plans to exit Pioneer Corporation, a Japanese automotive electronics firm it acquired in 2018 via its purchase of Baring Private Equity Asia for about $900  million. The 100 percent stake EQT held in the company is being sold to CarUX for $1.1  billion in cash. The deal is expected to close in Q4 2025.
EQT sold its entire majority stake in Recover, a Scandinavian property remediation specialist it acquired in 2020, to industrial investor Pangea AS. Terms were not disclosed.
Woodside Energy sold a 40 percent stake in its Louisiana LNG project (formerly Driftwood) to Stonepeak for $5.7  billion. Woodside retains a 60 percent stake in the project.
Apollo, which acquired Maftec Group via a carve-out from Mitsubishi Chemical in 2022, agreed to sell their interest in this Japanese heat-insulating solutions provider to Advantage Partners for an undisclosed sum.
Bridgepoint exited MotoGP owner Dorna Sports (sold to Liberty Media for €4.2  billion, or $4.9 billion) and insurance broker Kereis (sold to Advent International for €2 billion), returning approximately €2 billion to LPs.
Bain-backed Evident sold its inspection technologies division to Wabtec for $1.8  billion.
Suma Capital exited its 30 percent minority stake in TradeInn, a Spanish e-commerce platform for sporting goods, to Apollo for an undisclosed amount. Suma Capital has held the asset since 2015 .
Odyssey Investment Partners sold Applied Technical Services, a testing and inspection firm, to global testing and certification company SGS for $1.3 billion. Odyssey first picked up the asset in 2020.
New Mountain Capital sold Zep Inc., a cleaning and maintenance solutions provider, to Truelink Capital for an undisclosed sum. New Mountain took Zep private in 2015 for $20.05 per share, or about a $692 million enterprise valuation.
Intermediate Capital Group sold Kee Safety, a UK-based fall protection systems provider, to Inflexion and 65 Equity for £1.3  billion. ICG originally backed Kee in 2021.
Meanwhile, portco M&A was in full swing over the same period:
GTCR‑backed Foundation Source, a provider of philanthropic tech and advisory, acquired PFS, a foundation management firm, for an unknown sum.
Clearlake Capital-backed PrimeSource Brands, a supplier of building products, bought Fortress Railing Products, a Texas-based manufacturer of residential and commercial railing systems backed by Tower Arch Capital (via its portco The Fortress Company, which it has held since 2017). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
SYSPRO, a software provider for the manufacturing and distribution industries backed by Advent International, acquired RiteSoft, a provider of mobile warehouse scheduling software. Financial details were not disclosed.
Oaktree Capital acquired FilmRise, a New York-based film and TV distribution platform, and merged it with Shout! Studios to create Radial Entertainment, a new distribution and IP platform. Financial details were not disclosed.
Bridgepoint-backed LumApps, a French employee experience platform the firm has held since 2023, announced plans to merge with Beekeeper, a Zurich-based communications and workflow software provider for frontline workers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Namirial and Signaturit, two European e-signature and digital ID solution providers, announced plans to merge, though financial details of the deal remain unknown. Namirial has been backed by Ambienta SGR since 2020; Signaturit is owned by PSG Equity and Providence Strategic Growth.
See you next week!