• Received minority equity from GTCR this month
• Europe on shopping list
• Targeting firms with up to USD 10m of EBITDA

Solmetex, a dental water treatment consumables company, will use M&A to further expand its offering, said Jason Prager, managing director on the capital solutions team at GTCR, which invested this month.

The Northborough, Massachusetts-based company is interested in acquiring firms with complementary products in the fields of systems and consumables for dental waterline treatment and testing, advanced dental isolation solutions, and regenerative biomaterials, he said.

Solmetex will also consider deals to expand its European footprint, he added, without specifying the countries of interest.

On 15 October, GTCR committed to a staged minority investment of up to USD 200m in the business over the next few years. GTCR will collaborate with Solmetex’s current shareholders, including majority shareholder AGIC Capital, which invested in March. AGIC Capital acquired Solmetex from Avista Healthcare. Avista still holds a minority stake in the company, Prager said.

Solmetex looks at small players with EBITDA of up to USD 10m but would also consider larger companies, he said.

Talks with one US target are already at an advanced stage, he added, noting that a deal could close in the next few months.

Solmetex’s main product is amalgam separation, Prager said. With the acquisitions of Sterisil and DryShield in 2022 and Impladent in 2023, the company expanded its offering and is now looking to continue on this path, with the objective to further reduce the revenue contribution of amalgam separation over the next five years, he explained.

Ideally, GTCR envisions Solmetex closing one to two small deals per year and one large deal over the next five years, the executive said.

Solmetex has more than 130 employees and is profitable, he said without disclosing figures. The company manages its M&A efforts in-house and receives inbound approaches from bankers and M&A advisors, he added.

Deals will be financed with cash, credit lines, and GTCR’s structured minority equity investment, he said.

Solmetex serves more than 85,000 dental practices across the US. While the dental sector is growing at an annual average rate in the low single digits, Solmetex’s growth rate is a multiple of that, he said.

On an organic basis, Solmetex will sell through international distributors. He noted that the company is already selling in Canada and aims to further grow in the country.

GTCR sees strong value in Canada, he said, as evidenced by its September acquisition of Dentalcorp, which it said is Canada’s largest network of dental practices.

Solmetex competes with different players depending on the product, he said, pointing to Hufriedy and ProEdge as examples in water safety.