NEW YORK, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Arsenal Capital Partners, a leading New York-based private equity firm that invests in middle-market healthcare and specialty manufacturing and services companies, today announced the sale of portfolio company Priority Solutions International to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. . Thermo Fisher is the leading provider of instruments, equipment, reagents and consumables, software and services for research, analysis, discovery and diagnostics.
Priority Solutions is a leading third-party logistics provider to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. With revenues of approximately $95 million in 2006, Priority Solutions offers a comprehensive range of services for the delivery of FDA-regulated pharmaceuticals, including shipment of pharmaceutical samples, direct-to-physician patient supplies, and pharmaceutical warehousing and order fulfillment.
“The successful sale of Priority Solutions reflects the contributions from the company’s strong management team led by Chris Carpenter and Bill Ciminello with guidance provided by Arsenal’s operating partners,” said Jim Marden, Managing Director of Arsenal. “All of us at Arsenal are proud of the accomplishments of the Priority Solutions management team, and are confident that they will continue to grow the company as part of Thermo Fisher’s biopharma services business.”
Arsenal acquired Priority Air Express in 2004, merging Priority Air with its primary competitor Distribution Solutions International in 2005 to form Priority Solutions International.
Chris Carpenter, Co-President of Priority Solutions said “During Arsenal’s ownership we made an acquisition that diversified our customer base, deepened our management team, upgraded our facilities and geographic footprint, and expanded our scope of services to our rapidly growing customer base.”
Based in Swedesboro, New Jersey, Priority Solutions’ non-asset-based logistics network extends to more than 500 cities worldwide. From order entry to final delivery, Priority Solutions tracks, manages and reports shipment status through call center specialists and a variety of Web-based tools available to both vendors and clients. Throughout the process, each step is fully documented to ensure end-to-end integrity of shipments in the highly regulated pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
The sale of Priority Solutions is Arsenal’s second successful exit in the pharmaceutical services sector, following the sale of Scientific Protein Laboratories to American Capital Strategies in 2006.
Arsenal’s minority co-investors in Priority Solutions included Priority Solutions’ senior management, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, and Audax Mezzanine. BB&T Capital Markets’ Logistics & Transportation Services Investment Banking Group advised Priority Solutions on the transaction. Proskauer Rose LLP served as legal counsel to Arsenal and Priority Solutions.
About Arsenal Capital Partners
Arsenal Capital Partners is a New York-based private equity firm that makes control investments in specialty industrial and service companies. Arsenal makes investments in sectors where the firm has prior knowledge and experience, and targets businesses that have the potential for further value creation by working closely with management to accelerate growth and leverage the firm’s operational improvement capabilities. Arsenal targets growing, niche market leading companies in the specialty manufacturing & services, specialty chemicals and materials, aerospace & defense, financial services and healthcare industries. The firm currently has $800 million of committed equity capital. For additional information on Arsenal Capital Partners please visit http://www.arsenalcapital.com.
CONTACT: Chris Tofalli, for Arsenal Capital Partners, +1-914-834-4334
Web site: http://www.arsenalcapital.com/
