Meritus Gas Partners Announces Partnership With Global Calibration Gases

New York, NY /PRNewswire/ - Meritus Gas Partners ("Meritus") announced today that it entered into a partnership with Global Calibration Gases, LLC ("Global"), a leading independent manufacturer and distributor of specialty gases headquartered in Sarasota, Florida. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Global is a premier supplier of calibration gases and custom specialty gas mixtures to independent distributors and major gas producers. Global specializes in multi-component hydrocarbon mixtures, low parts-per-million and parts-per-billion volatile organic compound mixtures, and a complete line of EPA Protocol gases and National Institute of Standards and Technology ("NIST") traceable gas mixtures. These products are used to calibrate instrumentation and are supplied to many industries including chemicals and pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, natural gas, and petroleum refineries, medical diagnostics and research labs, and air quality monitoring.

Global is led by President Ray Borzio, who will remain with the business following the transaction and maintain significant equity ownership in Meritus.

"Though we have been approached many times in the past, Meritus was the only suitor that understood the importance of our wholesale business model," said Ray Borzio. "We serve independent distributors with products that are more complex than they likely would ever choose to produce themselves. We look forward to supplying the Meritus federation of companies with our products and supporting our new partners and their customers. Meritus will propel Global's future growth while keeping our experienced team and culture intact."

"We are excited to welcome Ray, Dale Hyler, Global's Vice President of Operations, and the entire Global team into the Meritus family," said Meritus' Chairman, Scott Kaltrider. "Global has a well-deserved reputation as an industry leader in the supply of EPA protocols - gases that are used to calibrate air pollution monitors for consistent and reliable emissions monitoring. These gases are used in power plants, refineries, petrochemical plants, papermills - anyone with an EPA air permit and a smokestack."

"Moreover, Ray is widely regarded as our industry's specialty gas guru," Kaltrider continued. "Ray has built more plants and trained more salespeople in specialty gases than perhaps anyone in our industry. We are intent on building out Meritus' specialty gas capabilities. Ray will play an integral role in developing our specialty gas core competency, which we believe is critical for our partners' growth."

About Meritus Gas Partners
Founded in December 2020, Meritus is a portfolio company of AEA Investors Small Business Private Equity. Meritus is assembling a national network of high-quality independent distributors of industrial, medical and specialty gases and welding and safety supplies, located in diverse geographies and serving growing end-markets. Meritus will partner with exceptional businesses and management teams, allow them to remain independent and entrepreneurial and support them to accelerate growth, improve business quality and enhance value. Owners are invited to invest meaningful equity into the Meritus holding company to allow them to share in the success of the overall platform. Visit us online at www.MeritusGas.com.

About AEA Investors
AEA Investors LP was founded in 1968 by the Rockefeller, Mellon and Harriman family interests and S.G. Warburg & Co. as a private investment vehicle for a select group of industrial family offices with substantial assets. AEA has an extraordinary global network built over many years which includes leading industrial families, business executives and leaders; many of whom invest with AEA as active individual investors and/or join its portfolio company boards or act in other advisory roles. Today, AEA's approximately 110 investment professionals operate globally with offices in New York, Stamford, San Francisco, London, Munich and Shanghai. The firm manages funds that have approximately $19 billion of invested and committed capital including the leveraged buyouts of middle market companies and small business companies, growth capital and mezzanine and senior debt investments. AEA Small Business Private Equity is a strategy within AEA that currently manages approximately $3 billion of invested and committed capital. The team seeks to help grow and transform companies at the lower end of the middle market by sponsoring growing companies with proven management teams and superior business models.