Prospect Partners has sold its portfolio company Summit Companies, a fire and life safety service and installation company, to CI Capital Partners. The management team of Summit will continue to lead the company and is retaining a significant equity ownership position.
Summit Companies provides inspection, testing and monitoring, service and repair, installation, and consulting services for fire protection, life safety and security systems to over 35,000 commercial, industrial, government, healthcare and multi-family residential facilities annually. The company has expertise across the entire spectrum of fire and life safety categories including both wet and dry suppression, clean agent suppression, alarm and security monitoring, fire extinguishers, kitchen hoods and special hazard systems. Summit was founded in 1999 by its President Quint Rubald and has 11 locations in five Midwestern states with headquarters in St. Paul (www.summitcous.com).
Prospect Partners acquired Summit in 2006 with management and outside executive Jeff Evrard who became Summit’s CEO. During Prospect Partners’ ownership term, through a combination of new branch openings and more than 20 acquisitions, Summit expanded into new geographic markets and lines of business. Summit now has 11 locations in five Midwestern states, and services more than 35,000 commercial, industrial, government, healthcare, and multi-family residential facilities annually.
“Summit has been a strong and exciting growth story for Prospect Partners,” said Lou Kenter, a Founding Principal of Prospect Partners. “In 2006, the company was primarily focused on fire sprinkler design, installation, and servicing in Minnesota and Iowa. Jeff, Quint, and their talented team had a bigger vision — to become the regional leader, a one-stop shop capable of round-the-clock management of the entire fire life safety systems of nearly any building.”
“Management did an excellent job executing and achieving its strategic plan,” added Brad O’Dell, a Principal of Prospect Partners. “Summit’s successful completion and integration of approximately two dozen acquisitions not only built a bigger company, but created a more recurring, value-added aftermarket services platform.”
Prospect Partners focuses exclusively on management-led leveraged recapitalizations and acquisitions of niche market leaders with revenues of less than $75 million. Areas of interest include niche manufacturing, distribution, and specialty service markets. Since 1998, Prospect Partners has built 49 platforms by investing in more than 145 businesses. The firm has $470 million of capital under management and is based in Chicago (www.prospect-partners.com).
“Summit has achieved significant growth over the last ten years, in part due to the completion of over 20 add-on acquisitions,” said Mr. Evrard. “We believe that we can continue the company’s growth trajectory, and that CI Capital shares our vision for building a national company to better serve our customers.”
CI Capital Partners invests from $25 million to $100 million in middle market companies in the following sectors: business services, consumer services, distribution, government services and defense, and light manufacturing. Since its founding in 1993, CI Capital and its portfolio companies have made more than 230 acquisitions representing over $8 billion in enterprise value. The firm is based in New York (www.cicapllc.com).
“Summit is well-positioned to consolidate the fragmented fire and life safety sector, and our investment in Summit is another example of our ‘buy and build strategy’,” said Timothy Hall, Managing Director, CI Capital. “We are thrilled for the opportunity to form a partnership with the management team of Summit and look forward to what we can accomplish together.”
TM Capital served as Summit’s financial advisor in connection with this transaction.
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | September 6, 2017
