February 08, 2021

Barings Backs Bertram Capital in Buyout of Safety Products

Barings, one of the world’s leading financial services firms, announced it has served as the Administrative Agent, Syndication Agent, and Sole Lead Arranger and Bookrunner of a Senior Secured Credit Facility supporting Bertram Capital’s buyout of Safety Products Holdings. Safety Products is the market-leading manufacturer of highly engineered safety cutting tools designed to promote employee productivity and reduce workplace injuries. The Company operates a best-in-class supply chain and goes to market under two brands, Pacific Handy Cutter and Klever Innovations.

 “We have previously worked alongside Bertram Capital to fund investment opportunities in both the U.S. and Europe, and we are thrilled to continue our longstanding relationship by supporting the Safety Products transaction. We strongly believe that Safety Products represents the gold standard in its category, and we are excited to assist Bertram Capital and the company in its next phase of growth,” said L. Max McEwen, Managing Director in Barings’ Global Private Finance group. “In the current market environment, we are focused on opportunities to invest in high-quality companies backed by top-tier sponsors, and this investment certainly fits those criteria.”

"Safety Products has established itself as a differentiated provider of safety cutting solutions through its comprehensive product offering, U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities, and compelling safety value to end users. As a result of its success, SPH maintains entrenched relationships with marquee customers across a variety of industries,” said Kevin Yamashita, Partner at Bertram Capital. “We appreciate the financing support, flexibility and partnership we received from Barings throughout the acquisition process, and we look forward to their continued support as the business scales.” 

About Barings
Barings is a $345 billion* global investment manager sourcing differentiated opportunities and building long-term portfolios across public and private fixed income, real estate, and specialist equity markets. With investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, the firm, a subsidiary of MassMutual, aims to serve its clients, communities and employees, and is committed to sustainable practices and responsible investment. Learn more at www.barings.com.

*Assets under management as of December 31, 2020

Barings Global Private Finance is a team of 60+ investment professionals located around the world, with a 40-year record of successfully financing middle-market buyouts, acquisitions, and recapitalizations. With product capabilities ranging from senior debt to bespoke junior capital securities and hold sizes of $200 million+, we focus on providing creative capital solutions for our private equity clients. Our long-term commitment to the private debt class, local origination by region, and broad range of investment capabilities provide investors with a spread premium to broadly syndicated loans and the potential for attractive risk-adjusted return.

About Bertram Capital
Bertram Capital is a private equity firm targeting investments in lower middle market companies. Since its inception in 2006, the firm has raised over $1.7 billion of capital commitments. In addition to supplying strategic growth capital, Bertram Capital leverages its proprietary processes and services, Bertram High 5sm, and Bertram Labs, to empower its portfolio companies to unlock their full business potential. Bertram High 5sm is an operationally-focused value creation strategy, which includes management augmentation, operational initiative implementation, complementary business acquisition, sales and marketing improvements and leveraging technology and IP. The cornerstone of this strategy is Bertram Labs, its in-house technology team, which drives growth and value through digital marketing, e-commerce, big data and analytics, application development and internal and external platform optimization.