HEPACO, a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors since August 2016, has acquired Environmental Management Specialists, a provider of emergency response, remediation, and environmental services.
Cleveland-based Environmental Management Specialists (EMS) has 185 employees and operates across 11 locations in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. The company’s services include emergency response, vacuum truck services, industrial cleaning, confined space entry services, waste transportation, site remediation, facility decontamination, equipment decommissioning, and lab packing (www.emsonsite.com).
EMS is led by its founder and CEO Jon Ransom who will join the HEPACO executive team after the closing of the transaction and he will maintain a significant equity stake in the combined company
HEPACO is a provider of emergency response, environmental remediation, maritime services, wastewater treatment, and other industrial services across a range of end markets including rail, oil & gas, transportation, power & utility, and manufacturing. The company provides services on both an emergency response and planned basis and in 2017 completed more than 6,500 projects. HEPACO has 31 locations across more than 20 states in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States and offers a three-hour or less response time within this geographic footprint. The company, led by CEO Ken Smith, was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Charlotte (www.hepaco.com).
The combination of HEPACO and EMS creates a company with more than 685 employees and a footprint of over 40 locations across the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Northeast regions in addition to the ability to respond to emergencies on a national basis through its managed network of third-party emergency response vendors.
“We are very excited to have completed the highly strategic acquisition of EMS and to partner with Jon Ransom and his team,” said HEPACO Chairman and Gryphon Operating Partner Phil Petrocelli. “EMS’ complementary geographic footprint and strong performance represent an attractive path for HEPACO’s continued growth.”
The buy of EMS follows HEPACO’s October 2018 acquisition of Trans Environmental, a provider of environmental and emergency response services headquartered near Rockford in Loves Park, IL (www.transenvironmental.com).
Gryphon makes leveraged acquisitions and growth investments in middle-market companies. The firm invests from $50 million to $200 million of capital in companies with sales ranging from $100 million to $500 million. Sectors of interest include business services, consumer and retail, automotive, chemical, general manufacturing, healthcare and hotels.
Gryphon closed its fourth private equity buyout fund, Gryphon IV LP, in November 2016 at $1.1 billion, and raised a $100 million captive mezzanine fund, Gryphon Mezzanine Partners LP, in August 2017. Gryphon Investors is based in San Francisco (www.gryphoninvestors.com).
EdgePoint Capital Partners (www.edgepoint.com) was the financial advisor to EMS on this transaction.
© 2018 Private Equity Professional | December 20, 2018
