EMEX, a portfolio company of O2 Investment Partners since June 2018, has made an investment in BLUEFIN.
BLUEFIN is a facility management consultant specializing in roof asset management, building envelope management, pavement management and energy management services. Customers of the company include large multi-facility owners in the education, banking, food processing, grocery, government, industrial and commercial sectors.
The company was founded in 2005 and has assessed more than 40,000 buildings across North America with more than one billion square feet of roof area. BLUEFIN was founded by CEO Richard Rast and is headquartered near Denver in Greenwood Village, CO (www.bluefinllc.com).
“We are excited to be joining the EMEX team,” said Mr. Rast. “BLUEFIN has always focused on improving facility performance for our customers through a suite of asset management services in roofing, pavement, building envelope, and renewable energy consulting. Combining BLUEFIN with EMEX extends our service offerings more deeply into facility energy issues, including renewables, sustainability, and demand management.”
EMEX is a provider of energy-related software and consulting services. The company’s enterprise software is used to uncover the lowest rates for electricity and natural gas supply, specifically in commercial and industrial end markets, and facilitates the brokerage of electricity and natural gas procurement in regulated and deregulated markets across the United States. EMEX, led by CEO Daniel Marzuola, was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Houston, TX with eight additional offices in Texas, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maine (www.energymarketexchange.com).
“The addition of BLUEFIN to the EMEX platform is transformational,” said Joe Vallee, a vice president at O2. “Our service offering now addresses the costliest elements with respect to the successful maintenance and operation of any commercial building. The combination expands our ability to utilize proprietary software to provide recession-resistant services to facilities worldwide.”
The buy of BLUEFIN follows EMEX’s June 2019 add-on acquisition of Patriot Energy Group, a Burlington, MA-based electricity and natural gas management firm (www.patriotenergygroup.com).
O2 makes control investments of $5 million to $75 million in companies with EBITDAs from $2 million to $10 million located anywhere in the US and Canada but prefers the Midwest and the Great Lakes regions. Sectors of interest include niche manufacturing, niche distribution, select service businesses, and certain technology businesses.
In October 2017, the firm held a final closing of its Oxygen Fund with an above-target $100 million of capital commitments. O2, based in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, is backed by the Orley family which has been investing in operating businesses and real estate since 1950 (www.o2investment.com).
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | August 22, 2019