Paine Schwartz Partners invests in Kynetec

Rothschild & Co and Arrowpoint Advisory have advised Paine Schwartz Partners on the buy-out of Kynetec from Inflexion.

Kynetec provides market research for the agriculture and animal health industries, helping companies around the world understand the dynamics of their marketplaces, turning research into business opportunities and enabling clients to create winning strategies. Leveraging proprietary data sources and processing capabilities, Kynetec offers customers a suite of data-driven reporting and tracking solutions, as well as insight studies. Led by an experienced management team and based in Newbury, England and St. Louis, Missouri, Kynetec has 400-plus customers in more than 80 countries.

This acquisition builds on Paine Schwartz's track record of investing in data-driven food and agribusiness companies, including previous investments in Advanced Agrilytics, AgroFresh Solutions and FoodChain ID.

The transaction reinforces Rothschild & Co and Arrowpoint Advisory’s experience in the B2B information services sector, and the integrated team provided advice across M&A, Debt Advisory and Management Advisory.

Debt facilities were raised from Ares and Lloyds, providing Kynetec with significant flexibility to make strategic investments to drive growth both organically and by acquisition.

Daniel Wirth, CEO of Kynetec said: “We have made important progress growing Kynetec and are proud of our accomplishments since the Company was founded in 2002. Just over a year ago we took a meaningful step expanding our footprint and capabilities with the acquisition of the Kleffmann Group. With the demand for data and analytics in the agricultural and animal health markets multiplying by the day, we are poised to accelerate our growth. This investment by Paine Schwartz will provide us with the resources to capture opportunities, while bringing us a partner with deep agribusiness experience and expertise. We look forward to working closely with the Paine Schwartz team to continue building out our offerings, capabilities and customer base and extending our leadership in agriculture and animal health market research.”

Peter McDowell, CFO of Kynetec said: “Arrowpoint Advisory's experienced Debt Advisory team provided us with an optimal debt package to both facilitate the buy-out and provide financing support for our long-term strategy alongside our new investors at PSP. They secured us significant flexibility across documentation, helping to identify and improve the key areas to fit our goals.”

Steven Bierschenk, Managing Director of Paine Schwartz, said: “Paine Schwartz is investing in Kynetec at a time when companies across the value chain are increasingly relying on data to implement efficient and sustainable practices. The strategic counsel and guidance from the Arrowpoint Advisory team was critical in facilitating this exciting opportunity. The financing they helped raise will play a role in fuelling Kynetec’s growth by enabling the company to move into to new markets, deepen its offerings, enhance its technology and pursue complementary bolt-on acquisitions. We appreciate Arrowpoint’s support throughout this process.”

Neil Smith, Managing Director and Head of Debt Advisory at Arrowpoint Advisory, said: “Kynetec is an outstanding business and this was reflected by a very competitive debt process. We are pleased to have arranged a highly flexible debt package tailored to support both Paine Schwartz and the management team's plan to grow the business to its full potential.”

Richard Fetterman, Managing Director at Arrowpoint Advisory, concluded: “We are delighted to have advised Paine Schwartz Partners on its investment in Kynetec. This transaction represents yet another strong credential for Arrowpoint Advisory in the information services space.”

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