Rye, NY, November 28, 2018 – SFW Capital Partners, a specialized private equity firm that invests in mid-sized companies providing analytical tools and related services, is pleased to announce the sale of Spectro Scientific (“Spectro”) to AMETEK (NYSE: AME) for approximately $190 million. Spectro, headquartered in Chelmsford, MA, provides predictive analytics for maintenance of critical assets, comprised of sophisticated instrumentation, consumables, proprietary algorithms and cloud-based software analytics, to a range of industrial and military customers. Spectro’s customers use its solutions to increase asset availability, reduce operating expenses and increase productivity.
SFW acquired Spectro Scientific since it was attracted to Spectro’s strong value proposition, deep application expertise and significant untapped potential for growth and development. With SFW’s support, Spectro aggressively pursued a number of strategic growth initiatives, including a substantial increase in new product development investments, completion of four acquisitions and the development and execution of a new go-to-market strategy. Spectro’s product development initiatives and acquisitions enabled it to expand its proprietary data assets, create significant intellectual property, launch a differentiated on-site solutions platform and introduce applications for new end-markets, giving it access to a $1.4 billion global market opportunity. Spectro also developed and executed on a comprehensive global go-to-market strategy to directly reach asset owners and operators in its existing and new end-markets. Under SFW ownership, Spectro transformed its strategic market position, achieved substantial growth in revenues and profitability, and developed significant organizational and business infrastructure.
“We are incredibly proud of the transformational growth we experienced at Spectro in partnership with SFW Capital,” said Brian Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer, Spectro Scientific. “SFW’s unique sector-focused experience and business building expertise proved to be incredibly valuable to Spectro as we made substantial investments to pursue our strategy. SFW’s support and the resources they provided allowed us to develop a truly unique position in the market for predictive analytics for maintenance, enabling us to serve our customers more effectively and create significant opportunities for our employees and business partners. We are excited to become a part of AMETEK and build on our industry-leading position through continued development and introduction of innovative solutions. We believe that the combination with AMETEK will provide opportunities for sustained growth and development for our employees, customers and business partners.”
“Spectro’s compelling value proposition, proprietary application knowledge and significant opportunities for growth were a great fit with SFW’s focus on investing in and supporting the growth and development of providers of analytical instrumentation, control and monitoring solutions, consumables, and software,” said Ahmad Sheikh, a Partner at SFW. “We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to partner closely with the management team at Spectro to build and transform the business.”
About SFW Capital Partners
SFW Capital Partners is a leading investor in analytical tools and related services companies, including providers of analytical instrumentation, software, information, control and monitoring solutions, industrial and lab automation, consumables, and related business services. SFW is a specialized private equity firm that exclusively invests where its principals’ 25+ years of knowledge of the relevant business models, technology, competitive dynamics and service requirements gives it a unique ability to support management teams in growing their companies and building value. SFW’s businesses manage and provide data, analytics, information, controls, and workflow solutions that support critical decision-making processes and drive efficiencies across all major industries and business functions. For more information, visit www.sfwcap.com.
About Spectro Scientific
Spectro Scientific is a leading provider of predictive analytics solutions used to determine and monitor the condition of high-value assets using on-site analysis of in-use oil, lubricants and other industrial fluids. Spectro’s portfolio of comprehensive on-site solutions, comprised of sophisticated instrumentation, consumables, proprietary algorithms and cloud-based software analytics, enable real-time decision making, increasing asset availability, improving reliability, reducing operating expenses and enhancing productivity. It is one of the largest global suppliers of oil and industrial fluid analysis instruments to industry and the military worldwide. Spectro has a large, installed blue chip customer base in global, diversified end markets including process industrials, fleet and transportation and power generation. Spectro Scientific’s extensive product offerings include spectrometers for wear metal analysis, lubricant degradation and contamination analyzers, particle analysis instruments, complete turnkey systems for oil or fuel analysis laboratories and the TruVu 360™ enterprise fluid intelligence data management platform. For more information, visit www.spectrosci.com