AmeriPath Inc. has closed its merger with Valencia-based Specialty Laboratories Inc. in an estimated $315 million deal for the locally based provider of diagnostic testing.
Under terms of the deal, AmeriPath, a publicly held Palm Beach Garden, Fla., company providing pathology and other diagnostic services to physicians, laboratories and hospitals, agreed to pay Specialty shareholders $13.25 per share, a 27 percent premium to the average trading price during the three months before the deal was announced in late September.
The bi-coastal laboratories of AmeriPath and Specialty will retain their individual corporate identities and names, said AmeriPath chief executive Donald Steen in a statement.
“Our complementary areas of expertise and service offerings will allow us to build on both companies’ leadership positions, provide access to each other’s medical and scientific expertise, (and) expand our geographic presence to better serve our customers,” said Steen, whose company’s primary markets are outside Southern California and the Southwest.
AmeriPath financed the transaction through a combination of cash on hand and private financing arrangements. Specialty Family Limited Partnership, the Valencia company’s majority shareholder, and related parties own about 20 percent of the combined company
In 2004, Specialty Laboratories agreed to pay $12 million to settle a group of securities class action lawsuits. The company’s stock had fallen 80 percent in 2002 on news that government inspectors had found unlicensed personnel working at its laboratory, in addition to other state and federal regulatory violations. The company paid $600,000 in fines and other costs to settle those investigations.
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Revolution Partners, a Boston-based investment bank, plans to open offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco to provide private placements to middle market technology companies.
The company has hired Josh Tanzer, a 20-year veteran of the industry and a former managing director at Lazard Freres & Co., to head its Los Angeles office. Michael Barker, a former investment banker at Morgan Stanley and at Credit Suisse First Boston, will head the San Francisco office.
“We’ve always wanted to have a presence on the West Coast,” said Peter Falvey, Revolution’s co-founder and managing director.
Tanzer raised $175 million in private equity while he was at Lazard for Virgin America, a fledgling airline. He has owned his own technology firm, Principia Capital Group, and was the global head of private equity for CSFB’s technology group.
“Because of the convergence of entertainment and technology, it’s now reached critical mass,” he said.
Revolution Partners, with 17 bankers and 20 employees, has closed 39 deals since it was formed five years ago.
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Paladin Private Equity Partners, an investment and merchant banking firm, received a $40 million commitment from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System for its $200 million California clean technology fund.
The $200 million Paladin Private Equity Partners I, LP will make investments of $5 million to $15 million in small micro-cap companies involved in water remediation, water resource management and raw material conversion technologies.
“The future of water resources is going to be in reclamation and ground water basin recovery,” said Tom Soto, a Paladin partner.
Paladin was founded in 1998 by William Simon, a former U.S. Treasury Secretary, and his sons, including Bill Simon, who ran unsuccessfully to be California governor. Paladin’s President, Robert MacDonald, said the firm is no longer connected with the Simon family.
Kate Berry, Deborah Crowe
