San Francisco, CA and Venon Hills, IL 3/22/17; Chicago, IL 3/22/17—Private equity firm GTCR has sold Cole-Parmer to private equity company Golden Gate Capital for an undisclosed amount. Cole-Parmer designs, manufactures and distributes specialty lab equipment, notably fluid handling, test and measurement, and electrochemistry products. Cole-Parmer CEO Bernd Brust will remain with the company. “We look forward to partnering with Bernd and the Cole-Parmer management team as the Company continues its expansion into high-growth life science and lab testing markets such as bio-production and contaminant testing,” stated Rajeev Amara, managing director of Golden Gate Capital. Cole-Parmer will remain based in Venon Hills, Illinois.

Golden Gate declined to comment to IBO about the acquisition. Among Golden Gate’s other life science­–related portfolio companies are ANGUS Chemical, which supplies chemicals to agricultural, pharmaceutical and biotech markets. Cole-Parmer has 770 employees, according to a spokesperson. GTCR acquired Cole-Parmer from Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2014 (see IBO 7/30/14) and has added to the company through six acquisitions.