SSG Capital Advisors and Fairmount Partners acted as co-investment bankers to the Tar Heel Trading Company (TTC) in its sale to IMS Health (IMS). The transaction closed in August 2012.

TTC provides drug development organizations with state-of-the-art clinical trial cost benchmarking tools and budgeting applications that are critical to achieving more cost-effective clinical trials. TTC provides its subscribers, consisting of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, as well as clinical research organizations, with access to the most comprehensive set of structured clinical trial cost benchmarking data available in the market. TTC’s data enable subscribers to review and compare their respective clinical trial requirements and budgets against similar, final negotiated clinical trial cost components and budgets for clinical trials conducted by industry peers.

TTC is a highly profitable, privately held business and retained SSG and Fairmount to facilitate the exploration of its strategic alternatives, including the sale of the company. After receiving a strong reception from both strategic and financial investors, TTC was acquired by IMS, a provider of information, services and technology for the healthcare industry. IMS plans to integrate its evidence-based, anonymized patient and treatment outcomes insights with TTC’s comprehensive cost data drawn from organizations that conduct nearly 80% of all commercial clinical studies. The transaction provides TTC with strategic resources to support its growth initiatives and allows TTC’s owner the opportunity to pursue other business initiatives.

SSG Capital Advisors, LLC is an independent boutique investment bank that assists middle-market companies, as well as their stakeholders, in completing healthy and special situation transactions.