Arlington exits medical equipment company Riverpoint to Novanta in $1.45bn deal; Capitol Meridian and Industrial Growth among latest aerospace dealmakers

Good morning, Hubsters. Senior reporter Michael Schoeck here with the US edition of the Wire from New York, filling in for editor-in-chief MK Flynn today, who’s attending a media event in town.

We’ll kick off the week with a medical equipment deal exclusive from healthcare reporter John R Fischer. John caught wind of an Arlington Capital portfolio company being sold to a public company, so PE Hub is first to report the news.

Next, we’ll shift gears to the power sector for a moment, a sector I’ve covered at great length for about a decade. We’re highlighting a deal announced last week: Blackstone Energy Transition Partners’ $7 billion exit of an energy storage developer to Brookfield.

And in fresh deal news, there’s two aerospace PE deals, involving Capitol Meridian Partners and Industrial Growth Partners.

But first let’s have a look at the medical equipment deal exclusive.

Surgery stitching

Medical components manufacturer Novanta has closed its $1.45 billion acquisition of Riverpoint Medical, a developer of advanced surgical products, from Arlington Capital Partners, PE Hub is the first to report.

Under the agreement, which was announced in June, Novanta will pay $1.2 billion upfront in cash and pay an additional $250 million milestone payment in the first quarter of 2027.

To learn more about the sale, PE Hub spoke with Arlington managing partner Matt Altman in an exclusive interview.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Riverpoint manufactures specialized surgical threads and other surgical consumables made of fiber-based, polymer and bioabsorbable materials for minimally invasive procedures, including sports injury repair, trauma and heart surgery. Riverpoint sells the products to original equipment managers, which resell them under their brands, and also manages the entire 510(k) clearance process, saving OEMs time and costs for bringing products to market.

“Riverpoint has a very scarce capability that is in great demand among large OEMs, compared to a basic computer numerical control metal machine company that is more of a commodity manufacturer where capacity is much greater,” said Altman. “If you can deliver a scarce capability in a resilient way that can be depended upon by the OEMs, and you’ve got capacity to grow with your partners, that’s of great demand in terms of strategic interest and private equity.”

Under Arlington, which invested in the company in 2019, Riverpoint’s revenue has grown at a rate of 15 percent CAGR consistently, and the company has more than tripled in size, primarily through organic growth. This included expanding company leadership, enhancing commercial capabilities, scaling manufacturing operations in the US and expanding into new markets via Costa Rica’s nearshore medical manufacturing hub.

Riverpoint made one tuck-in acquisition, buying surgical products manufacturer CP Medical from Theragenics in 2024, which added complementary tools and CP Medical’s customer base.

The sale provides Novanta with a similar customer base to its own, a new set of technologies, a domestic FDA-approved manufacturing base and exposure to medical consumables – a strategic objective of Novanta’s, according to Altman. “It’s a great strategic and cultural fit. It was financially accretive and will enable Riverpoint to continue going forward at its level of growth, if not even stronger.”

Powering data centers

Rapid data center proliferation has created a surge of demand for new power plant constructions from both conventional power producers and renewable energy developers.

In 2026 alone, there have been several notable renewable energy deals involving private equity and infrastructure fund sellers and buyers. These include Copia Power, sold to EQT, Greenbacker Renewable, sold to Goldman Sachs spin-off MN8 Energy, and Intersect Power, sold to Google.

To add to those, Blackstone Energy Transition Partners on Wednesday announced the exit of Aypa Power, an energy storage developer formerly known as NRStor, to Brookfield in a $7 billion enterprise value deal.

Aypa is a standalone battery energy storage developer based in Austin, Texas. The company has 6.5GW of operating and under-construction capacity assets, backed by a 20GW project pipeline. Its assets are located in transmission- and capacity-constrained regions experiencing favorable market dynamics.

The deal caps off a sale process that Infrastructure Investor Deals first reported on in April. At the time, Brookfield and Macquarie Asset Management were considering acquiring the energy storage developer, with final bids coming due in late May.

“We invested in Aypa based on our conviction that battery storage would become increasingly critical to supporting grid reliability and meeting growing electricity demand from AI and other use cases,” Bilal Khan, senior managing director at Blackstone, said in a statement.

Blackstone acquired then-named NRStor in early 2020.

Cantor Fitzgerald and BofA Securities advised Blackstone and Aypa on the deal.

Including Aypa, Blackstone Energy Transition has participated in four data center-associated power deals over the past half year:

Be sure to read my September 2025 feature on the intersection of data center and power infrastructure demand, which cites BETP’s David Foley and JP Munfa, as well as Harris Williams energy, power and infrastructure bankers Drew Spitzer and Matt White.

Taking to the friendly skies

This year has picked up from where 2025’s rapid pace of private equity firms buying and selling aerospace and defense suppliers and aftermarket companies left off.

This morning there were two deal announcements in the sector, involving an aircraft alloys manufacturer and an aviation support equipment and MRO services company.

In the first, Capitol Meridian Partners announced a strategic investment in RH Aero Systems, a provider of aviation support equipment and services whose main businesses are known as Rhinestahl and Hydro.

RH Aero provides aircraft MRO and equipment solutions to OEMs, MROs and flight operators worldwide. The company provides ground support equipment, engine and airframe tooling systems, engineered products and lifecycle services.

In the second deal, TransDigm agreed to acquire Prince & Izant, a portfolio company of Industrial Growth Partners, in a $1.066 billion cash transaction.

Prince & Izant, headquartered in Cleveland, is a manufacturer of brazing alloys and specialty metal components for the A&D, aeroderivative turbine and transportation markets.

P&I is expected to generate approximately $360 million in revenue for the 2026 calendar year.

July has seen about a dozen aerospace and defense market manufacturers or service providers change hands among PE firms and some strategics, with Arlington Capital, Capitol Meridian, Tinicum and Kinderhook Industries among the latest slate of PE dealmakers.

Check out PE Hub’s late 2025 A&D feature to learn the factors driving aircraft and defense market deals.

That’s a wrap for me. Tomorrow Craig McGlashan will be with you for the Europe Wire and Obey Martin Manayiti will deliver the US edition.

Cheers,
Michael