Prairie Capital Advisors represents Paxton/Patterson LLC in the sale to Millpond Equity Partners and Wasena Capital Management

Prairie Capital Advisors Inc. of Oakbrook Terrace recently announced that Paxton/Patterson LLC has been acquired by Millpond Equity Partners LLC and Wasena Capital Management, Inc. Prairie acted as exclusive financial advisor in this transaction to Paxton/Patterson and its shareholders and was led by Terry Bressler and Dan DeLap of Prairie. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Paxton/Patterson was founded in 1962 as a supplier of equipment and tools for school “workshop classes”. Today, the company, headquartered in Alsip, Illinois, provides school districts with a Career and Technical Education (“CTE”) program, related equipment, pre-service educator training, and a ongoing support for educators to help students envision their future education and career paths. The company’s unique curriculum uses self-directed learning, mastery, and real-world challenges to guide and motivate students as they develop skills for future education and careers.

Millpond is a lower mid-sized private equity firm focused on investing in business services companies with a particular focus on the education and training segment. Based in Boca Raton, Florida, the Millpond team has over 60 years of combined private equity and operating experience, which they leverage to partner with leaders of healthy and growing companies. and to create value.

Wasena is a private equity firm focused on investing in growth-oriented companies with revenues between $7.5 million and $100.0 million. Based in Stuart, Florida, the firm is focused on investing in strong, profitable businesses, either seeking a financial and strategic partner who can help achieve growth-oriented goals, or majority owners. seeking to monetize their equity positions.

“Prairie excelled in both key drivers of our business’ sales success. They were totally focused on our key transaction objectives, many of which presented challenges – and we achieved our key objectives, fully satisfying our owners. A second success factor was their invaluable advice on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the M&A market, which allowed us to launch our sale at the perfect time,” said Roger Davis, owner of Paxton/Patterson .

“Paxton/Patterson, through its personalized and turnkey career labs, provides a highly engaging and hands-on experiential learning experience for students. The company is a leader in career and technical education, and we are delighted to support them in their next phase of growth,” commented Larry Shagrin, Partner at Millpond. “We are delighted to partner with the Paxton/Patterson management team to leverage the company’s strong product portfolio, its long-term customer relationships and successful track record of growth,” added Mark Eidemueller, Managing Director at Wasena.

“We believe that Paxton/Patterson is an important player in vocational and technical education. Millpond and Wasena are excellent partners in positioning the company for significant growth opportunities in the educational programming industry,” said Terry Bressler, Managing Director of Prairie. “We continue to see strong interest from the private equity community to invest in market-leading companies such as Paxton/Patterson,” added Dan DeLap, vice president of Prairie.

About Prairie Capital Advisors

Prairie offers investment banking, ESOP advice, valuations & opinions, and financial reporting assessments to support growth and ownership transition strategies for mid-market companies. Based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, the firm is a leading adviser to closely held companies nationwide. For more information, visit www.prairiecap.com.