Goldman-backed SPAC to take Mirion Tech public in $2.6bn deal

Radiation detection provider Mirion Technologies Inc said on Thursday it will go public through a merger with a Goldman Sachs Group Inc-backed special purpose acquisition company, in a deal that values the combined entity at $2.6bn.

The deal with GS Acquisition Holdings Corp II will be supported by a private investment in public equity (PIPE) of $900 million from investors such as Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, BlackRock, Neuberger Berman funds and Janus Henderson Investors.

PIPE also includes a $200 million investment from Goldman Sachs.

Mirion is owned by London-based private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners, which revived a sale of the company earlier this year after halting a previous attempt in 2019, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Charterhouse bought Mirion in 2015 for $750 million.

Mirion has pursued a string of acquisitions to expand its gamut of services that include detection, measurement and analysis solutions to the nuclear, defence, medical end markets. Its most recent acquisitions include Germany-based Dosimetrics GmbH and Sun Nuclear Corp.

GS Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), went public in a $700 million IPO in June last year.

SPACs are shell companies which raise funds through an initial public offering to take a private company public through a merger at a later date.

Concerns that SPACs have taken pre-revenue, loss-making electric vehicle makers public at very high valuations have turned PIPE investors away in recent weeks.

Mirion will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “MIR”, after the deal closes in the second half of the year.

Source: Reuters