Houlihan Lokey Advises Analytical Lab Group

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Thompson Street Capital Partners (TSCP), a private equity firm based in St. Louis, has completed the sale of Analytical Lab Group (ALG), an industry-leading microbiology and viral lab, to Element Materials Technology (Element), one of the world’s largest providers of materials and product qualification testing, inspection, and certification services to the global aerospace, transportation and industrials, connected technologies, energy, and fire and building products sectors. The transaction was announced on July 27, 2020.

ALG’s team of 130 scientists and experts operates a number of FDA and EPA compliance-focused laboratories in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Boston in the U.S. and has built a strong reputation in the infection prevention market, offering comprehensive testing solutions in the molecular cell biology and virology testing, antimicrobial, pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech, and healthcare industries, backed by sound regulatory and scientific expertise. ALG also offers SARS-CoV-2 antimicrobial and antiviral testing services to its customers in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, consumer products, and medical device industries in accordance with EPA guidelines.

TSCP built ALG through a series of acquisitions and growth initiatives, which began when TSCP acquired Microbiology Research Associates in Acton, Massachusetts, in 2015. ALG is led by a strong management team, including CEO Alan Roth. Steve Sullivan, a pharmaceutical industry executive, chaired ALG’s board of directors. It is TSCP’s second successful exit in a lab-focused business model in successive funds.

According to Matt Scherrer, Managing Director at TSCP, “ALG has been a ‘buy and build’ platform for TSCP. Via a series of acquisitions that focused on the important trend of antimicrobial and antiviral across a variety of end markets, including pharmaceutical and life sciences, ALG has become a valuable platform in the lab space. We have been pleased to work with a talented management team, led by Alan Roth. ALG’s successful exit is also the third in partnership with laboratory and pharmaceutical services expert Steve Sullivan, whose steady leadership has been invaluable in many of our life sciences portfolio companies. TSCP’s value creation strategies, focused on revenue growth, have been in full effect at ALG.”

Roth, ALG’s CEO, described further, “Led by our talented team, ALG has become a lab of scale with the right combination of breadth of services and agility to meet clients’ needs. TSCP has been extremely supportive of organic and inorganic investments, including a recent expansion of one of our labs to conduct SARS-CoV-2 antimicrobial testing. ALG has become a ‘go-to’ lab amongst our customers during TSCP’s ownership period and will continue providing these same great services.”

Thompson Street Capital Partners is a St. Louis–based private equity firm focused on investing in founder-led middle-market businesses in the healthcare and life science services, software and technology services, and business services and engineered products sectors. Founded in 2000, the firm has acquired more than 100 companies and has managed more than $2.6 billion in equity. TSCP partners with management teams to increase value by accelerating growth, both organically and via acquisitions.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor and assisted in marketing, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on behalf of ALG and TSCP. This transaction exemplifies Houlihan Lokey’s life sciences testing, inspection, certification, and compliance expertise, delivering an outstanding result to the selling shareholders.