Archives for July 14, 2020

Greenbriar Continues Auto Service Build Up

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GB Auto Service, a portfolio company of Greenbriar Equity Group, has acquired sister companies, Sun Devil Auto and Sun Auto Service (together Sun Devil Auto).

Sun Devil Auto was founded by Joel Higginbotham in 1978 and operates 32 locations across Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Austin, Texas. In 2005, Mr. Higginbotham’s son Tom was named president of Sun Devil Auto.

GB Auto is a provider of vehicle maintenance, repair, and tire replacement services with approximately 132 retail locations in multiple markets including San Diego, the Inland Empire (the region east of Los Angeles including Riverside and San Bernardino counties); Las Vegas, Nevada; and Dallas, Austin, and Houston, Texas. The company, led by CEO Frank Kneller and headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, operates under the BRAKEmax, Tire Works, Ramona and Evans Tire brands.

“We are excited about joining forces with the Sun Auto team,” said Mr. Kneller. “Sun Auto has spent decades building its business into one of the most recognizable brands in the Southwest through exceptional customer service and thoughtful business practices, establishing a culture we truly value and that fits well with our organization. We look forward to investing in Sun Auto’s growth to continue its terrific success, including the addition of more than a dozen new greenfield locations in the very near future.”

The buy of Sun Devil Auto expands GB Auto to over 160 tire and automotive service facilities. “The combination of Sun Devil and GB Auto enhances the strategic market position of both companies and Greenbriar is a value-added partner that is uniquely suited to help further build the combined platform,” said Tom Higginbotham. “This is a very exciting time for our organization, and I look forward to remaining involved during this next phase of growth.”

GB Auto began with Greenbriar’s acquisition in 2017 of Arizona-based Brake Max Car Care (15 stores). Ten add-ons followed including California-based Ramona Tire (17 stores); Nevada-based Tire Works Total Car Care (15 stores); San Diego-based Evans Tire & Service (17 stores); Austin-based Lamb’s Tire & Automotive (18 stores); Dallas-based Driver’s Edge (11 stores); and Phoenix-based Wilhelm Automotive & Tire (11 stores).

“The automotive aftermarket is a key area of focus for Greenbriar due to its size, channel structure and defensive characteristics, which create a diverse set of investment opportunities,” said Matt Burke, a director at Greenbriar. “This acquisition is the twelfth for GB Auto over the last two years and reflects the continued execution of our strategy to build the leading independent aftermarket service provider in the Western U.S. We have great respect for the business the Higginbothams have built, and we are thrilled to welcome Tom and his team into the fold.”

Greenbriar invests from $75 million to $150 million of equity per transaction in businesses that have enterprise values from $100 million to $1 billion. Sectors of interest include advanced manufacturing, aerospace & defense, automotive aftermarket, business, and industrial services, specialty distribution, logistics, and rail. Greenbriar was founded in 1999 and is based in Rye, New York.

The vehicle aftermarket group of Capstone Headwaters was the financial advisor to Sun Devil Auto on this transaction.

Private Equity Professional | July 14, 2020

BV Teams with Becklar in Personal Emergency Response

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BV Investment Partners has acquired Becklar, the parent company of sister companies, Freeus and AvantGuard.

Freeus manufactures and sells mobile (home and away from home), two-way voice, personal emergency response systems (PERS) to dealers across the United States. Freeus was the first mobile PERS provider to use Wi-Fi location technology to locate a subscriber and its products provide fast access to trained and certified emergency care specialists.

AvantGuard is a wholesale monitoring company providing event response to the security, fire, PERS, and IoT industries. The company’s response times for critical events averages less than 10 seconds and, according to the company, is among the fastest reaction times in the industry.

Becklar – the name is inspired by the Bechler River in Yellowstone National Park – is based in Ogden, Utah. BV partnered on this transaction with Becklar’s founder and chief executive officer Josh Garner. Mr. Garner is maintaining a sizeable equity stake in Becklar and plans to remain highly engaged with the business.

“Driven by the quality and dedication of the Becklar team, investment in technology, and the good fortune of positive market trends, Becklar has grown rapidly,” said Mr. Garner. “Together with BV we are pursuing several organic growth opportunities, including the overall growth in the mobile PERS market, developing new products and services, meeting emerging monitoring needs, and expanding our software development capabilities for a number of end markets. We also plan to pursue sizeable M&A opportunities that had previously been out of our reach without a partner like BV.”

“We have gotten to know Josh and the Becklar team over the last several years; they are a terrific group and have established a leading position in the wholesale monitoring and PERS industries through careful investment in technology, process and people,” said Justin Garrison, a managing director of BV. “We’re looking forward to working in partnership with them to execute on a compelling growth strategy.”

BV Investment Partners makes investments in companies that are EBITDA positive and are active in the business services, software, and IT services industries. In February 2020, the firm held a first and final close of BV Investment Partners Fund X LP at its hard cap of $1.1 billion. The firm’s earlier fund closed with $750 million of capital in 2017. BV was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Boston.

“For a number of years, we have been working to execute on an investment thesis around wholesale monitoring and PERS,” added Mr. Garrison. “These industries provide critical life safety technology and services, and they benefit from a number of growth drivers including demographic tailwinds, the desire of seniors to have the freedom to age in place, IoT adoption, and the trend towards outsourcing commercial and residential monitoring to leading wholesale providers like AvantGuard.”

The Edmonds Group – a St. Louis-based investment bank that specializes in recurring revenue companies – was the financial advisor to Becklar.

Private Equity Professional | July 14, 2020

Round Table Launches New Platform

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Round Table Capital Partners (RTC) has acquired Hull & Associates, a provider of environmental and engineering consulting services.

Hull & Associates specializes in the environment, energy and infrastructure markets and its services include site assessment and remediation, brownfield redevelopment, wastewater management, and infrastructure design. Customers of Hull include more than 500 industrial businesses, energy companies, public utilities, municipal and government agencies.

Hull, founded in 1980 with more than 150 employees, is headquartered north of Columbus in Dublin, Ohio with seven additional offices in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions including Ohio (5), Texas and Pennsylvania.

RTC’s investment in Hull is the first buy for the firm as it launches an environmental and engineering consulting services platform.

“We are excited to complete this transaction with such a strong and diverse firm and look forward to partnering with the management team at Hull to launch our strategy,” said Christopher Lee, a managing partner at RTC. “Their stellar reputation in the market and strong business and operational acumen will serve as a vital foundation for building a nationwide leader in the industry.”

With the close of the transaction, RTC has named Gerry Salontai as Hull’s new CEO. Craig Kasper, Hull’s current CEO, will take on the role of executive vice president.

Prior to joining Hull, Mr. Salontai was CEO of Salontai Consulting Group from 2009 to 2020; and from 1981 to 2009 he was with The Kleinfelder Group, a San Diego-headquartered provider of engineering, construction management, design, and environmental services. During his 12-year tenure as CEO of Kleinfelder, the company grew from $70 million to more than $300 million in annual revenues through a combination of organic growth and add-on acquisitions.

“Hull is an exceptional company with great leadership in a highly fragmented industry with increasing tailwinds,” said Mr. Salontai. “We are dedicated to building on their history of success through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions.”

New York City-based Round Table Capital Partners invests in North America-based companies with EBITDA from $500,000 to $10 million and enterprise values from $1 million to $50 million. Sectors of interest include professional, business and healthcare services. The firm was founded in 2018 by Tony Brindisi and Christopher Lee.

Dublin, Ohio-based Rea & Associates was the financial advisor to Hull on this transaction and Carlile Patchen & Murphy provided legal services.

Private Equity Professional | July 14, 2020

Blackstone’s Life Sciences Fund Largest Ever

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Blackstone has held an oversubscribed, hard cap, and final close of Blackstone Life Sciences V LP with $4.6 billion of capital. This is the largest life sciences private equity fund ever raised by any firm.

Blackstone Life Sciences pursues three investment strategies: strategic collaborations with established life science companies, late-stage product financings, and growth investments in emerging companies.

“Our mission to bring innovative medicines to patients by drawing on our domain expertise and scale capital has resonated with investors,” said Nicholas Galakatos, Ph.D., the global head of Blackstone Life Sciences. “With many more promising products in the life sciences industry’s pipeline than capital available to advance them, we look forward to continuing to bring new treatment options and innovations to the patients who need them.”

Over the past three months, the new fund has invested a combined $1 billion in Massachusetts-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals which develops and commercializes RNA interference therapeutics (April 2020); Texas-based Reata Pharmaceuticals which is active with experimental oral antioxidative and anti-inflammatory drugs (June 2020); and Minnesota-based Medtronic which makes medical devices over a range of categories (June 2020).

Blackstone’s investment activities include private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets, and secondary funds. The firm also provides financial advisory services, including financial and strategic advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory, and fund placement services. Blackstone (NYSE: BX) is headquartered in New York City.

Private Equity Professional | July 14, 2020