Artemis and Abacus Team Up on Maury Microwave

June 29, 2021

3 minute read

Artemis Capital Partners, in partnership with Abacus Finance Group, has acquired Maury Microwave.

Maury Microwave is a designer and manufacturer of radio frequency (RF) measurement and connection products – including instrumentation, cables assemblies, coaxial and waveguide components and adapters – used in the telecommunications, semiconductor, aerospace, defense, instrumentation, and research sectors. The company’s products are used for calibration, measurement, modeling, and interconnection of wireless technologies across the radio frequency spectrum including the terahertz (THz) frequency band (0.1-10 THz).

Maury Microwave, headquartered near Los Angeles in Ontario, California, was founded in October 1957 by Mario Maury and is today led by CEO Michael Howo.

“At Maury, besides our employees, the two things that we take most seriously are continuous innovation and having a service mindset. This is embodied by our founders and employed every day in our commitment to our customers, whose immediate application demands, challenges, and long-term successes we view as our own,” said Mr. Howo. “We chose to partner with Artemis because they also embrace our service mindset paradigm and bring both an aligned vision and the strategic resources necessary for Maury’s next chapter of growth.”

Artemis has been actively searching for an RF-focused, industrial technology platform in the defense, space, and commercial sector. The Artemis transaction team included Managing Partner James Ward, Principal Euan Milne, and Associate Taylor Murphy.

“At Artemis, we have long believed that innovation in high-frequency RF technologies – including the test, measurement, and interconnect devices that enable it – is accelerating larger, long-term, improvements in human connectivity, security, and mobility. For that reason, we have also long known of Maury Microwave – based on its respected reputation and formidable position as a rare, broad-line, RF technology player in the middle market,” said Mr. Ward.

Abacus Finance served as the Administrative Agent and Lead Arranger for the credit facilities to support the buy of Maury Microwave. In addition to its senior debt financing, Abacus also made an equity co-investment in the company.

“The Abacus approach in this transaction was flexible, the due diligence process went smoothly, and communications – including early assurance of closure – were clear from the beginning,” said Mr. Ward.

“As in other transactions, our success was a function of our speed, flexibility, and certainty of close – key aspects of what we call our Total Partnership Approach,” said Tim Clifford, the president and CEO of Abacus. The Total Partnership Approach is the firm’s operating strategy that merges its cash-flow financing expertise, deep industry knowledge and client service capabilities to give its private equity and family office-sponsors the certainty of close and transactional peace of mind.

The Abacus/Maury Microwave transaction team included Mr. Clifford, Director Eric Petersen, and Associate Austin Rendell.

“We’ve been working with these folks for over seven years, and it is great to finally align on a deal,” said Mr. Petersen.

Abacus provides cash flow-based senior financing to private equity and family office-sponsored, lower-middle market companies that have EBITDA between $3 million and $15 million. Debt facilities can be as large as $50 million. Since its founding in June 2011, Abacus has closed over $2 billion in financings. The firm is headquartered in New York and is an affiliate of New York Private Bank & Trust which was founded in 1850.

Boston-based Artemis invests in companies with revenues of $5 million to $50 million and EBITDA of $1 million to $10 million. Target companies include manufacturers of differentiated industrial technologies in the aerospace, automotive, defense, energy, industrial automation, scientific and research, and medical sectors.