Aterian Investment Partners has formed a new platform holding company to begin a consolidation effort within the fragmented telecommunications and utility infrastructure sector. As part of this new strategy, Aterian has made an investment in Kane Communications.
Kane is a provider of structured cabling services which include the installation, replacement, and maintenance of telecommunications networks. The company is active in numerous sectors including distribution, data centers, and hospitals. Specific services provided by Kane include data center buildouts and maintenance; distributed antenna systems; fiber optic splicing and testing; power over ethernet (PoE) lighting systems; security and audio/visual infrastructure; and voice and data network infrastructure.
Kane also provides other plant and utility services to complement its structured cabling services. Kane was founded in 2004 by President Melissa Kane and is headquartered in Trenton, New Jersey.
“We could not be more excited about partnering with Aterian to help us through our next phase of growth,” said Ms. Kane. “We chose Aterian due to their focus on maintaining company culture, relevant industry experience, commitment to an expedient process, and experience in partnering with family founders like us.”
“We are eager to continue building out our footprint nationwide and have found the right partner in Aterian to help back us on our growth plan,” said John Donnelly, a senior vice president at Kane. “We have already been growing our geographic presence to help better serve our customers and we plan on accelerating that strategy organically and through M&A into additional high-growth regional markets.”
“We are excited to partner with Melissa and John and a talented Kane team to help build a nationwide leader in the growing telecommunications and infrastructure services space,” said Michael Fieldstone, a co-founder and partner at Aterian. “Kane has a reputation for high-quality service and technical capabilities in its growing telecommunications and utility sectors. This represents a thematic investment into a sector that Aterian has been pursuing in conjunction with an experienced industry executive who will serve as a strategic advisor and board member to the company.”
“The Kane platform represents yet another family-founder partnership that we have embarked on at Aterian,” said Daniel Phan, a principal at Aterian. “We are excited to help this team continue their robust growth plan throughout the country with organic and inorganic strategic growth initiatives as we capitalize on the immense secular trends in this sector.”
Aterian invests up to $50 million in small-to-middle market businesses with $25 million to $500 million in revenues that are underperforming, turnarounds or otherwise unique situations. The firm’s latest fund, Aterian Investment Partners III LP, closed in July 2018 with $350 million of committed capital. Aterian has offices in New York City and Coral Gables, Florida.
© 2021 Private Equity Professional | August 4, 2021
