Spectrum Health Ventures is joining as a strategic partner in the acquisition of one of its suppliers, Altus Industries. Grand Rapids-based private equity firm Auxo Investment Partners said Tuesday that it acquired Altus Industries, a Walker-based designer, manufacturer, assembler and marketer of medical, point-of-care workstations used across the health care industry. As part of the deal, Spectrum Health Ventures, one of Altus’s larger customers, will join as a strategic partner in the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed. Serving the health care sector, Altus’s product portfolio includes powered and nonpowered mobile technology workstations (also known as workstations on wheels, medical mobile carts or mobility workstations) and wall-mounted workstations, along with related accessories.
Grand Rapids private equity firm Auxo Investment Partners has acquired Altus Industries Inc., a Walker-based designer and producer of workstations for the health care industry. The deal includes Spectrum Health as a strategic partner for Altus Industries. Spectrum Health, which made the investment through Auxo, is one of the largest customers for the company’s mobile medical carts, mobile and wall-mounted workstations, and accessories that are used in patient rooms, surgical centers and continuing care, radiology and emergency departments.
Mergers and acquisitions should remain strong through 2021 — driven by several factors affecting deal flow — although finding a good deal may come with a high price for buyers. Participants in a recent MiBiz M&A roundtable discussion say they expect valuations to stay high for the foreseeable future — perhaps unreasonably so at times — as buyers compete for good deals in a robust market. A massive capital overhang, low interest rates, and greater competition among buyers in the market drove up high valuations in 2020. Buyers ranged from strategic corporate acquirers seeking to drive growth or add to platform companies, to private equity investors and family offices. Lower deal flow after the U.S. economy fell into recession in the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to increasing valuations that are expected to remain elevated even as activity picks up.
The team at Grand Rapids-based private equity firm Auxo Investment Partners has a saying that every deal has to die once before it closes. “That tends to be the way these things work — you often come across things that look like they could be deal killers and you just have to find a way to work through them,†said Jeff Helminski, managing partner of Auxo, which invests in growing founder- and family-owned industrial, manufacturing and business-services companies. Helminski and his team at Auxo encountered plenty of those instances in its 2020 acquisition of Indianapolis-based Precision Parts Group Inc. Precision Parts Group’s two divisions included Paramount Tube, which manufactures highly engineered and custom small diameter spiral-wound and extruded tubular products, and Euclid Medical Products, which manufacturers single- and multi-dose pharmaceutical packing systems.
A local private equity firm acquired a Chicago-area manufacturer of corrugated steel rule dies. <br><br> Grand Rapids-based Auxo Investment Partners said it acquired Elmhurst, Illinois-based GC Dies. <br><br> "We're excited to bring GC Dies into our expanding platform and see great potential to expand its customer footprint," said Jeff Helminski, a managing partner with Auxo. "We believe that adding a corrugate offering further bolsters our efforts to help shape the products that touch the lives of people - everything from heart valves and ventilator tubes to cereal boxes, gaskets and surgical masks." <br><br> Auxo Managing Partner Jack Kolodny added the acquisition fits nicely into the growing Auxo Die Holdings platform. <br><br> "When we considered the full impact of this acquisition, it was obvious that adding GC Dies would make us even more competitive in the Midwest marketplace and enhance our overall platform, which was already the broadest selection of tooling for the converting industry," Kolodny said.
Grand Rapids-based private equity firm Auxo Investment Partners continued its investment in cutting die manufacturers with a recent acquisition. <br><br> The firm announced this week that it has acquired GC Dies, a steel rule die cutting manufacturer with a 37,500-square-foot facility in the Chicago area. The Elmhurst, Ill.-based manufacturer, which has 50 employees on staff, specializes in flat corrugated, rotary corrugated and flat steel rule die production. <br><br> Steel dies and tooling from GC Dies are routinely used for products including corrugated boxes, folding cartons, trading cards, greeting cards, automotive parts, medical parts and gaskets. <br><br> The deal was the ninth for Auxo Growth Holdings I LLC, the firm’s first investment fund that closed in fall 2018. It’s also Auxo’s fifth acquisition under the Auxo Die Holdings platform, a portfolio of cutting die manufacturers that Auxo has acquired over time.
Private investment firm Auxo Investment Partners announced today that it has acquired GC Dies, a steel rule die manufacturer based in Elmhurst, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. The deal marks Auxo’s ninth acquisition in the firm’s inaugural investment fund, Auxo Growth Holdings I LLC, which closed in the fall of 2018. It is Auxo’s fifth acquisition under the Auxo Die Holdings platform, a growing portfolio of industry-leading cutting die manufacturers the investment firm has acquired in recent years. <br><br> Founded in 2000, GC Dies is one of the leading steel rule cutting die manufacturers in the country. The company, which has 50 employees and operates from a 37,500-square foot facility, focuses on flat corrugated, rotary corrugated and flat steel rule die production. <br><br> The purchase of GC Dies follows Auxo’s previous acquisitions of cutting die manufacturers Atlas Die, AtlasFlex, Bernal Rotary Dies, Midway Rotary Die Solutions, and DieCraft Engineering & Manufacturing – and further expands a fully integrated family of converting solution companies, each offering a wide selection of purpose-built dies, tools, systems and technical converting expertise
Auxo Investment Partners acquired GC Dies, an Elmhurst, Ill.-based steel rule die manufacturer. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
The purchase of GC Dies follows Auxo’s previous acquisitions of cutting die manufacturers Atlas Die, AtlasFlex, Bernal Rotary Dies, Midway Rotary Die Solutions, and DieCraft Engineering & Manufacturing – and further expands a fully integrated family of converting solution companies, each offering a wide selection of purpose-built dies, tools, systems and technical converting expertise. <br><br> "We are bringing the industry’s leading converting solution companies together to create the most comprehensive service offering available in the industry, and the addition of GC Dies is an important step in the process," says Jerry Mosingo, chief executive officer of the Auxo Die Holdings platform. "As we continue to expand – and service many of the world’s leading converting companies – we know our fully integrated solutions can meet virtually any challenge." <br><br> In addition to aligning with increasing customer demand for a single-source, full-service partner, the acquisition presents an opportunity to modernize Auxo Die Holding’s equipment and manufacturing facilities in Chicago for the expanding platform. Company leaders plan to move Atlas Die’s Chicago operations to Elmhurst, where GC Dies has capacity for continued growth.