Harvest Partners has acquired Road Safety Services from Parallel49 Equity.
Omaha-headquartered Road Safety Services (RSS) was formed by Parallel49 in November 2017 to acquire Minnesota-based Sir Lines-a-Lot, a provider of road safety services, including pavement marking and related services.
Parallel49 and RSS then added to its platform with the buys of Virginia-based Mullens Markings (September 2018), Missouri-based K & G Striping (September 2018), Pavement Marking (September 2018), Kansas-based Twin Traffic Marking (December 2020), and Arizona-based and Kansas-based Traffic Zone Services (December 2020).
Today, RSS’ services and products include highway marking ranging from small rural roads and intersections to major, high-speed Interstate highways; traffic control for both construction companies and municipalities that utilize equipment, certified flaggers, road and lane closures, and detours; parking lot striping; and signage and bollard installation.
Customers of RSS include state departments of transportation, municipalities, general contractors and private companies and operates in 15 states from 9 facilities in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Southwest. The RSS management team, led by CEO Mike Johnson, will continue to lead the company and remain significant owners of the business in partnership with Harvest.
“We have been pursuing infrastructure services, and within that roadway safety services, as a priority sector for several years and believe RSS is a premier competitor in the industry,” said Stephen Fessler, a partner at Harvest. “Customers value RSS’s professionalism, commitment to service excellence, responsiveness, and scale, and we are excited to be partners with the company through its next phase of growth.”
“On behalf of the RSS leadership team, we are excited to partner with Harvest and accelerate our growth,” said Mr. Johnson. “Their capital, experience and enthusiasm will help us continue our pursuit of excellence in road safety for our current and new customers across the country, deliver continued growth and success across each of our key priorities, and create ever increasing development opportunities for our outstanding team of road safety professionals.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Mike and the entire RSS team,” said Stephen Carlson, the president of Harvest Private Equity. “We think they have built an excellent company, and we look forward to providing additional financial and strategic resources to help them further build their market leadership through both organic and in-organic initiatives.”
New York City-headquartered Harvest was founded in 1981 and is an active investor in companies with $300 million to $5 billion of enterprise value, $100 million to $3 billion of revenue, and $30 million to $300 million of EBITDA, which are active in the business and industrial services, consumer, industrials, healthcare and software sectors. Last month, Harvest closed its ninth fund, Harvest Partners IX LP, with an above target $5.3 billion of capital commitments. The firm’s new fund is 30% larger than the firm’s 2019 and fully invested $4.1 billion eighth fund.
Parallel49 invests in profitable lower middle-market companies in the US and Canada. The firm is currently managing its fifth fund with over $300 million of committed capital. Parallel49 was founded in 1996 and is headquartered near Chicago in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Piper Sandler was the financial advisor to Parallel49 and RSS, and Guggenheim Securities was the financial advisor to Harvest.
© 2023 Private Equity Professional | December 15, 2023
