Stellus Capital Management, LLC (“Stellus”), a leader in middle market direct lending, announced today that its affiliates provided senior debt financing in support of Aterian Investment Partners’ (“Aterian”) acquisition of ATCO Industries, Inc. (“ATCO” or the “Company”).

Founded in 1980 and headquartered in Sterling Heights, MI, ATCO is a leading provider of tech-enabled testing, measurement, and quality containment services, primarily to the North American automotive market. ATCO’s services are critical to automakers’ products, quality, and production-line uptime by ensuring that any potential issues are rapidly identified, quarantined, and corrected. Through its reputation and over 40 years of performance, ATCO has organically built its business and leveraged its robust technology platform to become a provider of choice for quality assurance in North America and continues to position itself with customers that are expected to be significant players in the transformation of cars into electric and next-generation vehicles.

“From quality inspection to engineering services, ATCO has been able to grow its position through its reputation, speed and execution,” said Daniel Krasnow, Principal at Aterian. “We are grateful for Stellus’ support in the financing of this transaction, and we look forward to a continued partnership and growth of the business.”

Doug Bollermann, Managing Director at Stellus, added, “We are thrilled for the opportunity to partner with Aterian through this investment. ATCO is a go-to provider serving a critical need in an increasingly complex supply chain, and we are excited to support the Company in its next phase of growth.”

About Stellus Capital Management

Stellus was founded in 2012 and formed in conjunction with the spin-out of the Direct Capital Unit of the D. E. Shaw group. Stellus’ senior team helped create the Direct Capital Unit in 2004 and has been investing together in the middle market for 18 years. Since 2004, the Stellus team has deployed approximately $8 billion into more than 300 middle market companies, developing a broad and deep expertise in this segment of the private investing market. Stellus currently has approximately $2.6 billion in assets under management, with offices in Houston, TX, the Washington, D.C. area, and Charlotte, NC. Learn more at www.stelluscapital.com.

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