Huron Capital has sold a majority interest in Sciens Building Solutions to the Carlyle Group. The company’s senior management team, as well as Huron, will retain minority equity stakes in the business in partnership with Carlyle.
Huron formed Sciens in September 2015 with Terry Heath, a former Siemens executive, to pursue a buy-and-build investment strategy in the fire detection and security services sector. Mr. Heath’s experience at Siemens included 18 years in its building technologies division.
During Huron’s investment term, Sciens completed 13 add-on acquisitions to create a national provider of fire and life safety (FLS) services. These 13 acquisitions increased both revenues and EBITDA by more than 35x.
Today, San Francisco-headquartered Sciens, led by Mr. Heath, provides design, installation, and maintenance services for fire detection and suppressions systems in a variety of commercial, institutional, and government facilities.
“We have been extremely proud to support Terry and the senior management team over the last five years,” said Jim Mahoney, a managing partner at Huron. “Looking forward, we know that Sciens is poised for continued growth through M&A and would benefit from a larger partner with deep industry experience, and there is no one better to do this than the Carlyle team.”
“We have a clear focus to become the largest independent FLS integrator in North America by building a scalable platform with a world-class management team,” said Mr. Heath. “As a result of the investments we made, we grew rapidly and successfully integrated numerous acquisitions. We are extremely grateful for Huron’s partnership, and I am pleased that Jim and I will be able to continue our work together as board members under Carlyle’s ownership.”
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) invests worldwide in buyouts, growth capital, real estate, and leveraged finance. The firm, with $230 billion of assets under management, has more than 1,800 employees in 30 offices across six continents and is based in Washington DC.
Huron Capital makes control and non-control investments in companies with revenues of $20 million to $200 million and EBITDA of $5 million or more. Sectors of interest include business services, consumer goods and services, and specialty industrials. Founded in 1999, Detroit-based Huron Capital has raised over $2 billion in capital through 6 private equity funds and invested in over 200 companies.
The sale of Sciens by Huron is the firm’s eighth exit completed in 2021.
Baird was the financial advisor to Huron and Sciens on this transaction.
© 2021 Private Equity Professional | December 20, 2021
