NEC, a platform company of Pfingsten Partners, has acquired Eastern Communications.
Eastern is a provider of maintenance, repair and upgrade services to telecommunications infrastructure across the New England region. Many of Eastern’s customers are active in the public safety, transportation, and utilities sectors. Eastern, led by CEO Steve Slade, was founded in 1976 and is headquartered near Hartford in Bloomfield, Connecticut.
“We are thrilled to join forces with NEC,” said Mr. Slade. “Together, we are well positioned to rapidly scale alongside our customers with additional resources, broader service capabilities and enhanced geographic coverage.” Mr. Slade will retain an ownership position in the combined business, and he will join the NEC executive team.
The acquisition of Eastern is the third add-on completed by NEC since Pfingsten acquired New England Electrical Contracting Corp. (NEEC) as a platform in October 2021. The two earlier add-ons include New Hampshire-based Modern Link Communications (June 2022) and Massachusetts-based Atlas Innovative Services (August 2022).
Today, NEC is a provider of electrical services serving the telecommunications, electric vehicle charging, and utility markets. NEC’s services include installation, retrofit, maintenance, repair, and decommissioning of electrical infrastructure used in the telecommunications, and utility sectors. The company is active with underground utility services; tower services (new site builds, stealth structures, and antenna installations); small cell wireless installation; DAS (distributed antenna systems) installation; and fiber optic cable installation.
NEC has a specific focus on the rollout of 5G technology (fifth-generation technology for broadband cellular networks), and electric vehicle charging stations. The company has constructed multiple stations for Tesla and for Volkswagen’s Electrify America. NEC is headquartered south of Boston in Kingston, Massachusetts with three additional facilities in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
“Eastern’s reputation for high quality service, customer responsiveness, and integrity made it a natural fit for the NEC platform,” said Ryan Lavelle, a principal at Pfingsten. “We look forward to partnering with the team during the next stage of their growth.”
Chicago-based Pfingsten invests in middle-market manufacturing, distribution, and business services companies that have transaction values ranging from $15 million to $100 million, revenues from $20 million to $150 million, and EBITDA between $3 million and $12 million. Since completing its first investment in 1991, Pfingsten has acquired 160 such companies through five funds with total commitments of $1.3 billion.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | November 8, 2022
