Nautic Partners Announces Acquisition of LindFast Solutions Group in Partnership with Management
Middle market investor Nautic has acquired LindFast, a distributor of specialty fasteners.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nautic Partners, LLC (“Nautic”) is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of LindFast Solutions Group (“LindFast”), in partnership with LindFast management.
Headquartered in Blaine, MN, LindFast is a master distributor of specialty fasteners in the North American market serving a broad base of national, regional, and local distribution customers through its metric (Lindstrom) and imperial (Stelfast) product brands. As a master distributor, LindFast provides an important link in the fastener supply chain by offering a deep inventory as a “virtual warehouse” of approximately 130,000 low volume, slow moving SKUs that distribution customers need quickly but are non-economical to inventory and source themselves. These SKUs represent high‐touch, specialty products that can be difficult to source due to their unique length, diameter, thread pitch, metal choice, or finish. In addition to its unique product offering and virtual warehouse services, LindFast provides its distribution customers a range of value‐added services such as break bulk, packaging, kitting, plating, coating, and guaranteed stock programs, among others.
“We are excited to work with the Nautic team as we continue to grow our business and further enhance our customer experience. Our brands and customer relationships are strong today and will only improve as a result of this new partnership,” said Neil Yeargin, CEO of LindFast.
Chris Pierce, a Managing Director of Nautic, said, “LindFast has a deep, experienced management team and a great culture across the organization. We are thrilled to partner with them to support the company’s organic growth and cross-selling initiatives, as well as to pursue selective acquisitions in LindFast’s fragmented market. Additionally, we’re excited to again be investing in the fastener distribution industry following our previous investment in Endries International, which enabled us to have early conviction on the LindFast opportunity.”
Sean Wieland, a Vice President of Nautic, continued, “LindFast is a leader in its market and provides a truly compelling value proposition to its distributor customers. We believe the company has significant runway to continue to capitalize on its position of scale in the market to offer additional value-added services to the customer base, and we are excited to work with the management team on those efforts.”
Locke Lord LLP represented Nautic in the transaction and Ally Financial and GSO Capital Partners provided the financing for the transaction. BB&T Capital Markets and Blank Rome advised LindFast.
About LindFast
Headquartered in Blaine, MN, LindFast is the leading high-touch master distributor of specialty fasteners in the North American market and is a vital supply chain partner and superior sourcing solution to a broad based of distribution customers.
About Nautic
Nautic is a middle-market private equity firm that focuses on three industries: healthcare, industrial products, and outsourced services. Nautic has completed over 130 platform transactions throughout its 30-plus year history. Nautic’s strategy is to partner with management teams to accelerate the growth trajectory of its portfolio companies via add-on acquisitions, targeted operating initiatives, and increased management team depth. Nautic generally makes equity investments of $25 million or more. For more information, please visit www.nautic.com.
