The Halifax Group has completed the acquisition of United States Environmental Services, a provider of discretionary environmental and industrial services.
United States Environmental Services (USES) is a provider of discretionary environmental and industrial services, including emergency response services, industrial cleaning and other recurring maintenance services to refineries, petro-chemical plants, owners of bulk storage terminals, and marine and rail transportation companies. The company is headquartered in New Orleans (www.usesgroup.com).
Halifax also signed a merger agreement this week to merge USES with K2 Industrial Services. K2 is an outsourced plant maintenance services company that Halifax acquired in November 2011. It has operations in Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Florida, and California, plus seven other states and is headquartered near Chicago in Hammond, IN (www.k2industrial.com).
The combined company will have 41 branches from coast to coast, over 2,000 employees and complementary capabilities ranging from chemical cleaning to hazardous material emergency response, as well as specialty crafts, such as coatings and insulation.
Greg Johnson, CEO of USES, will serve as the combined company’s CEO. “The new USES has a larger, national footprint and an impressive range of services. Together, we have the size and strength to handle any project for our customers, who operate in diverse end markets such as refining, steel, paper and power. Further, our new partnership with Halifax and the K2 team should provide the financial resources to accelerate our growth and create value,” said Mr. Johnson.
“We’re building a leader in a rapidly consolidating market sector and are supportive of Greg’s vision to build the premier player in an $8 billion market and provide a single source solution to a demanding, sophisticated set of customers,” said David Dupree, co-founder, CEO and Managing Director at Halifax. “We are proponents of infrastructure investing; this is our firm’s fifth investment predicated on delivering needed services, products and expertise to our country’s critical energy, power, transportation and manufacturing infrastructure.”
The Halifax Group invests in lower middle-market businesses across a variety of industries including health and wellness, infrastructure, business and government services and franchising. The firm has offices in Washington, DC; Dallas, TX; and Raleigh, NC (www.thehalifaxgroup.com).
“Greg and his team have built a differentiated business with sophisticated processes and systems, and unique focus on people, including a substantial investment in safety & training,” said Scott Van Duinen, Principal at Halifax. “When combined with K2, the new USES will have a deep, world-class management team, will be an employer of choice, and a reliable partner, not just a vendor, committed to safety and efficiency.”
2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 6-11-14