H.I.G. Capital, a global private equity investment firm with tens of billions of dollars of equity capital, has sold Fibercore Limited (Fibercore; Southampton, England) to Humanetics Innovative Solutions (Humanetics; Plymouth, MI), a portfolio company of Golden Gate Capital. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Fibercore is a designer and manufacturer of specialty optical fiber and offers the industry's most comprehensive suite of specialty fiber products serving multiple high-growth end-markets, including use in aerospace & defense, oil & gas, and biomedical applications. Since its founding more than thirty years ago, Fibercore has worked with some of the world's largest companies assisting in the development of new optical fiber technologies.
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Carl Harring, managing director at H.I.G. Capital, said, "Fibercore has always been an industry leader. It has been a very successful transaction and during our period of ownership, we have enjoyed working with Chris Emslie and his team helping to develop the business in new areas; in many cases pushing the boundaries of optical science via pioneering R&D. Today, Fibercore sits at the heart of the industrial Internet of Things revolution with applications ranging from driverless cars to remote operating robots relying on the company's leading edge technology. Humanetics is a natural home for the business and we wish the combination every success."
Chris Emslie, CEO of Fibercore, said, "I would like to thank H.I.G. for their assistance in the development of Fibercore since 2011 and their support of the management team. This is an exciting moment in the Fibercore story and in combining our strengths with Humanetics and its leadership in sensor technologies, I believe we have found the perfect partner."
Established in 1982, Fibercore was formed as a business venture spin-out from the Optical Fiber Group of the University of Southampton to offer the specialty optical fibers developed at the University, commercially. Today, the company manufactures single-mode, photosensitive, multicore, polarization maintaining, spun, doped, and multimode fibers; passive cladding pumped fiber and components, fiber Bragg gratings, and complementary products.
Humanetics Innovative Solutions supplies precision test systems and sensor solutions that improve the safety, comfort, and protection of people and their environment. Humanetics says it is the world’s leading supplier in the design and manufacture of sophisticated crash test dummies, associated finite element software simulation models, and advanced safety test and calibration equipment. Furthermore, Humanetics develops and supplies custom force, load, torque and pressure sensors and advanced strain gauging services.
SOURCE: Fibercore; http://fibercore.com/news-article/safety-technology-holdings-inc-acquires-fibercore-ltd
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.