Souter Investments and Sullivan Street Partners have agreed to acquire Tracerco, Johnson Matthey’s (“JM”) Diagnostic Services business. Tracerco is a specialised detection, diagnostic, and measurement solutions business servicing the global oil and gas markets.
The transaction is subject to customary completion conditions and is expected to complete in the third quarter of 2023. Full transaction details have not been disclosed. The sale by JM is part of its divestment programme of non-core businesses.
This will be the fourth transaction Souter Investments will have completed alongside Sullivan Street and follows investments into portfolio companies Celsus, The Wave and Octavius.
Souter Investments Managing Director Calum Cusiter said: “We are delighted to announce the agreement to acquire Tracerco. This is an exciting business with a fantastic blue-chip client base and excellent opportunities for growth, leveraging its IP-rich product and service offering. It is also great to build on our relationship with Sullivan Street in partnering with them on this transaction”.
In the year ending 31st March 2022, Tracerco reported external sales of £55 million, operating profit of £4 million and net assets of £35 million.
ENDS
About Souter Investments:
Souter Investments is one of the UK’s leading family investment offices specialising in private equity. Founded in 2006, Souter has invested over £500m in more than seventy unquoted companies, and currently has significant investments in over thirty-five businesses, acting either as the lead investor or as a partner for other financial sponsors.
Portfolio companies include Suir Engineering, a leading provider of innovative mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering solutions; Akixi, which provides cloud-based call and contact analytics solutions under a SaaS model; Amey, one of the UK’s largest infrastructure services and engineering companies; LIKEZERO, a software business providing next generation data capture and contract analysis solutions to the financial services sector; and, voluntary carbon markets specialist Climate Impact Partners, which works with leading corporates, NGOs, and governments to deliver solutions for climate impact ensuring organisations meet their carbon neutral, net zero and renewable energy goals. For more information visit www.souterinvestments.com.
About Sullivan Street Partners
Founded in 2010, Sullivan Street Partners focuses on primary lower mid-market buyouts, taking an operationally intensive and risk-pricing approach to complex situations in the UK and Ireland. The firm operates across various sectors including industrials, consumer, healthcare, business services, facilities management, and financial services. Sullivan Street plays an active role in its portfolio companies and has a strong track record of operational improvement in the businesses it backs. Sullivan Street typically takes ownership or controlling stakes in companies through investing £20m to £50m of equity. For more information visit www.sullivanstreet.co.uk.
About Tracerco
Founded in 1958, Tracerco is world-leading global technology company providing unique and specialised detection, diagnostic and measurement solutions and services to the global oil & gas, refining, petrochemical and radiation assurance markets. Tracerco innovative technologies are used to measure, characterise and control process systems and diagnose operational problems for its customers in all aspects of oil and gas production – from reservoir management and refining to retail outlets for consumer fuel products. Tracerco has grown significantly both organically and via acquisitions, evolving from a niche UK provider of diagnostic and measurement solutions, into a leading technology specialist with a global footprint across 50 countries in Europe, Americas, Middle East, Asia and Africa. For more information, visit www.tracerco.com.