Verdesian Life Sciences Acquires QC Corporation

CARY, N.C. and BALTIMORE, Sept. 30, 2014 — Verdesian Life Sciences, LLC (“Verdesian”) today announced that it has acquired QC Corporation (“QC”), a leading producer and supplier of granular and dry micronutrients and ferrous sulfate products. The combined company will continue to be owned by and have the capital backing of Paine & Partners. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are excited to welcome QC and its micronutrient platform, including its unique Nutripaction™ compaction granulation technology, to Verdesian,” said JJ Grow, Chief Executive Officer of Verdesian. “The Gordon family and the rest of QC’s employees share our commitment to researching and developing innovative and proven yield enhancing plant-health products.”

The Gordon family will continue to lead the day-to-day operations of QC and manage QC customer relationships. Jason Gordon will serve as President of QC, a Verdesian Life Sciences Company. The rest of QC’s employees, including QC’s founder Don Gordon, will also continue to remain actively involved in the business.

Jason Gordon, President of QC, said, “QC’s leading micronutrient business and manufacturing capabilities are highly complementary to Verdesian’s plant health and nutrition offerings. This combination enables us to leverage Verdesian’s resources and growth platform to capitalize on new opportunities while continuing to provide QC’s customers with the innovation and service that have been the cornerstone of QC’s success over the last 40 years. JJ and the Verdesian team share our core values, namely the creation of best-in-class products and outstanding customer service.”

“This combination advances Verdesian’s position as a market leader with innovative product solutions along with a deep pipeline of next generation technologies for the specialty and agricultural markets globally,” said Kevin Schwartz, President of Paine & Partners. “QC is an established market leader in the fast-growing micronutrients category. We expect that the combination will bring QC’s expertise increasingly into Verdesian’s core agricultural markets, while QC’s lawn & garden and turf & ornamental customers will see new applications for Verdesian’s proprietary products.”

About Verdesian Life Sciences
Founded in 2012, Verdesian Life Sciences offers patented biological, nutritional, seed treatment and inoculant technologies for high-value specialty crops, row crops and turf and ornamental markets. Verdesian’s plant-health products, nutritional catalysts and seed treatments/inoculants help growers farm more efficiently to maximize yields. Verdesian’s technologies answer the needs facing agriculture including increasing pressures on food demand, supply and food safety. Verdesian remains committed to the research and development of environmentally sustainable products. Further information about Verdesian is available at www.vlsci.com.

About QC Corporation
Founded in 1971 by Don Gordon and family owned for 42 years, QC Corporation is a leading producer and supplier of granular and dry micronutrients and ferrous sulfate products. QC’s compaction process makes it one of the only micronutrient producers that can offer 100% water solubility in a multi-ingredient granulated product and the ability to granulate mixtures of sulfates, chelates, sucrates, oxysulfates, and oxides to yield immediate, intermediate, and long term uptake. These products help to prevent or correct micronutrient deficiencies while achieving higher and more profitable yields in lawn and garden, golf course, turf management, ornamental and crop applications. QC also processes and produces over 80,000 tons of ferrous sulfate products from its multiple processing facilities annually and is the only domestic manufacturer of all forms of ferrous sulfate products in North America. For further information about QC and its products, visit http://www.qccorporation.com/.

About Paine & Partners, LLC
Paine & Partners provides equity capital for management buyouts, going private transactions, and company expansion and growth programs. Paine & Partners engages exclusively in friendly transactions developed in cooperation with a company’s management, board of directors and shareholders. Verdesian is an investment from Paine & Partners’ $1.2 billion third fund, Paine & Partners Capital Fund III, L. P.

Paine & Partners focuses on the food and agribusiness industry globally. Its principals, through a predecessor fund, have made successful strategic investments in Seminis, then the world’s leading global developer, producer and marketer of vegetable and fruit seeds, and Advanta Netherlands Holdings BV, at the time the largest independent agronomic seed company in the world. In addition to Verdesian and QC, in its current fund, Paine & Partners has invested in Costa Group, Australia’s largest integrated grower, packer and marketer of fresh fruits and vegetables; Eurodrip, a global manufacturer and supplier of drip irrigation solutions; Icicle Seafoods, a leading producer, harvester and processer of salmon, pollock, halibut, cod, crab and other seafood products with operations in North and South America and sales globally; Scanbio Marine Group, a leading Norwegian producer of fish protein concentrate, fish meal, and fish oil; and Sunrise Growers~Frozsun Foods, a leading value-added frozen fruit processor and marketer. For further information, see www.painepartners.com.