Livingstone finishes deal for metal surface treatment leader

Livingstone’s global industrial team is pleased to announce the sale of Pioneer Metal Finishing, LLC (“Pioneer” or the “Company”) to Aterian Investment Partners (“Aterian”).

Livingstone acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Pioneer and its shareholders, which includes Prairie Capital (“Prairie”).  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Livingstone Partner Karl Freimuth commented, “We are proud to have advised Pioneer and Prairie on a successful transaction and to have found an experienced partner in Aterian to support the Company’s growth strategy.”

Pioneer is the market-leading provider of anodizing and plating services in North America. The Company serves a diversified customer base in the automotive, industrial, food service, aerospace & defense, outdoor & recreation, healthcare, and marine industries.  Headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Pioneer employs 800+ employees across eight facilities in the United States and Mexico. After running a competitive global sale process, Pioneer selected an operationally-focused partner in Aterian, a middle-market private equity firm investing in businesses generating $25 million to $500 million of annual revenue that have strong, proven franchises.

Darren Snyder, Partner at Prairie Capital, shared, “Livingstone executed a well-run process to find the best new partner for the Pioneer team.” He went on, “Karl and his colleagues were selected based on their knowledge of the space, and ability to access a broad universe of potential buyers, including international strategics. Prairie has been proud to work together with this management team to establish a dominant platform in the metal finishing industry, and we are excited to watch the future success of the company powered by fresh capital.”

Bob Pyle, the CEO of Pioneer stated, “Pioneer is well-positioned to capitalize on our organic growth plan and acquisition program in partnership with Aterian.  Our primary goal was to identify a partner to support Pioneer’s next chapter of expansion, and Livingstone executed a well-managed process while demonstrating a deep knowledge of our business and a relentless advocacy for our shareholder group.”

Aterian, in partnership with management, seeks to focus on the critical growth, and operational and liquidity initiatives to drive value creation for all stakeholders.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Pioneer team to execute on growth and optimization initiatives across the Company’s North American footprint paired with an anticipated active M&A strategy,” said Brandon Bethea, Partner at Aterian. He continued, “We are already evaluating add-on opportunities for Pioneer.  Our objective is to execute on multiple acquisitions to accelerate the Company’s top line revenue growth, enter new products and markets within our existing footprint, diversify the company’s end market mix and expand production capacity to continue providing the highest quality services to Pioneer’s customers.”

The Pioneer transaction highlights Livingstone’s expertise in the industrial services sector, and represents the 29th deal completed by our global industrial team over the last twelve months, following the sale of CapMan portfolio company MPT Sweden to Norwegian investment company Holta Invest, and the sale of leading ultra-precision medtech manufacturer LaVezzi Precision to MW Industries, a portfolio company of American Securities. Godfrey & Kahn S.C. provided legal counsel and Baker Tilly provided accounting services to Pioneer. Weil, Gotshal, & Manges LLP provided legal counsel and SCA Transaction Services LLC provided accounting services to Aterian.