Livingstone Gauges the Market and Leads the Sale of Engineered Specialty Products

Livingstone is excited to announce the sale of Engineered Specialty Products, Inc. (“ESP” or the “Company”), a portfolio company of Tonka Bay Equity Partners (“Tonka Bay”), to an undisclosed strategic buyer. Transaction terms were not disclosed.  

Headquartered in Kennesaw, GA, ESP is a leading provider of process control instrumentation, including pressure and temperature instrumentation, valves, diaphragm seals, and accessories to process industries requiring mission-critical accuracy and reliability for testing, measurement, flow control, and safety applications.

The Company’s innovative products and diversified manufacturing partner base of approximately 30 global partners reinforces its differentiated business model emphasizing quality, speed, availability, and service while offering nearly 11,000 stocked SKUs to almost 2,500 customers.

ESP and Tonka Bay engaged Livingstone to conduct a comprehensive global sale process that generated interest from strategic and financial buyers, ultimately selling to a highly synergistic strategic partner.

“From the beginning, Livingstone was able to provide a custom-tailored process, unrelenting advocacy for our company, and find a partner that shared our vision for accelerating the growth of ESP,” noted Brien Whitford, President & CEO of ESP.

“Tonka Bay and the ESP management team transformed ESP over its holding period.  Our Industrial team was proud to have been selected and orchestrate the transaction,” says Andrew Isgrig, Partner at Livingstone. “Brien and his team joined a dynamic growth platform, and we are excited to have helped them get there.  ESP will surely continue to thrive within its new platform.”

David Modiano, Director at Livingstone, commented, “With Livingstone’s focus on orchestrating a competitive yet streamlined M&A process, we were able to successfully close on the transaction less than 30 days after signing the LOI, all while delivering our sellers an excellent outcome.”

Livingstone has an impressive track record of advising clients in the Industrial sector globally. The ESP transaction represents Livingstone’s 184^th deal completed since 2020 and the 62^nd global Industrial transaction completed in the same timeframe, following the sales of ARCA to Sesami, Metaltec to Imperial Group, CIRS to Mirion, MultiCam to Kongsberg, Waterfront Brands to MPE Partners, Beranek to J&E, Lesman to Kele, LT Harnett to A&R, and Cummins Allison to Crane.

Godfrey & Kahn served as legal counsel, while Baker Tilly provided transaction-related accounting services to ESP.