HedgeCo.Net — Blackstone Credit & Insurance said on October 12 that it is leading a $1 billion financing supporting the combination of Analogic Corporation with the Security Enterprise Solutions, Ports & Borders and Industrial Automation businesses of Leidos Holdings. The combination, which closed earlier this month, creates a larger security imaging and detection company serving airports, ports, borders and critical infrastructure.
BXCI served as lead lender and joint lead arranger alongside HPS, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Analogic, headquartered in Salem, New Hampshire, is backed by Altaris, a healthcare-focused investment firm that manages $10 billion of equity capital. According to Leidos’s filing on the deal, the combined business operates as Analogic, with Altaris affiliates holding a 58.5% stake and Leidos retaining 41.5%.
Brad Colman, global head of healthcare investing and sponsor coverage for private credit strategies at BXCI, said the financing was designed to help create a scaled, integrated leader in security detection and reflects the firm’s ability to provide large-scale, flexible capital. The mix of lenders, with two large private credit platforms working alongside two major banks, shows how sponsor financings of this size are increasingly being split between direct lenders and bank balance sheets.
The structure is also typical of corporate carve-outs. Leidos keeps a significant minority interest and continued exposure to the upside of the combined business, while the sponsor takes control and brings in a lending group that can fund the transaction quickly and privately. For direct lenders, a $1 billion ticket backing a combination with a large installed base in aviation and border security fits the demand for bigger, more defensive loans.
For allocators, the deal adds to evidence that private credit managers are moving toward security, defense-adjacent and industrial borrowers as they diversify away from software-heavy books. It also underscores the competitive position of the largest platforms, which can lead billion-dollar financings and set terms on transactions that once would have gone straight to the syndicated loan market.