Briefly

First Reserve has acquired WGI, an engineering and infrastructure services provider. WGI’s management team reinvested and retained meaningful ownership in the business in partnership with First Reserve.Founded in 1976 by CEO David Wantman, WGI provides engineering, design, and professional services used by public- and private-sector clients across transportation, water resources, environmental, geospatial, and land development projects. The company also owns Streamline Technologies which provides flood forecasting and stormwater management software. WGI is headquartered in West Palm Beach and  operates from 23 offices nationwide.

Managing Partner Jeff Quake led the transaction for Stamford, CT-headquartered First Reserve.

AEC Advisors served as financial advisor to WGI, with Lawson & Weitzen as legal counsel. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised First Reserve.

MPE Partners completed the sale of 80/20, a modular framing systems manufacturer, to Littlejohn & Co.

Founded in 1989, 80/20 designs and manufactures configurable aluminum framing, accessories, and fastening systems used by customers to build machine frames, safety enclosures, workstations, and automation equipment. The company has more than 8,500 configurable SKUs. Customers of the company include automation integrators, manufacturers, and maintenance distributors. 80/20 is led by CEO Doug Waldal and is headquartered near Fort Wayne in Columbia City, Indiana.

MPE Partners, based in Cleveland and Boston, invests in North America-based lower middle-market companies with EBITDA from $8 million to $40 million. Sectors of interest include high-value manufacturing and commercial and industrial services. The firm’s most recent fund, MPE Partners IV LP, closed in June 2023 at its hard cap of $633 million. Leading the transaction for MPE were Karen Tuleta and Joe Machado.

Greenwich, Connecticut-based Littlejohn invests from $75 million to $500 million of equity in middle-market companies that have EBITDA from $15 million to $125 million. The firm invests across a range of industries including manufacturers, distributors, and service providers.

Baird served as lead financial advisor with Houlihan Lokey as co-advisor. Forvis Mazars providing financial due diligence.

AEA Investors has acquired Magna5, a managed IT services provider, alongside a significant reinvestment from the company’s management team.

Founded in 2016 by CEO Bob Farina, Magna5 provides managed IT support, cybersecurity monitoring, cloud hosting, and compliance services used by small and mid-sized and mid-market customers. Clients include healthcare providers, financial institutions, manufacturers, and professional services firms. The company is headquartered near Pittsburgh in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Magna5 serves more than 1,700 customers nationwide.

Dan Schorr and Chris Claudio led the transaction for New York City-headquartered AEA.

Winston & Strawn has added David Love as a partner in its Finance Practice, expanding its leveraged finance capabilities. Mr. Love joins the firm’s Transactions Department and is based in the Chicago office.

Mr. Love represents private equity sponsors in leveraged finance transactions, with a focus on large-cap and middle-market acquisition financings and liability management matters. He joins Winston from Kirkland & Ellis, where he was a partner in the Debt Finance Practice Group.

At Winston & Strawn, Mr. Love joins a finance team that has recently added Aaron Benjamin, Andrew Jacobs, Yulia Makarova, Aparna Sehgal, and Richard Semple. The firm has also expanded its transactional bench across London, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Charlotte.

William Blair has added three managing directors to expand sector coverage across chemicals, energy transition, and equity capital markets. The hires deepen the firm’s Industrial Growth Products franchise and strengthen technology-focused capital markets capabilities amid continued global expansion.Jayant Dey will expand coverage in energy transition, power, and electrification, drawing on prior roles at BNP Paribas, UBS, and Credit Suisse. Alain Harfouche broadens chemicals and specialty materials coverage following senior roles at Guggenheim Securities and KeyBanc Capital Markets. Matthew Wolfe will lead technology equity capital markets after serving at Piper Sandler and Evercore.

These additions follow recent senior banker additions across Europe and the U.S., supporting William Blair’s growth across advisory and capital formation services.

Seedbox Solution, a seed logistics and monitoring company based in Chicago, has merged with Trace Engineering, a Colorado-based provider of IoT hardware and software engineering services. Seedbox is a portfolio company of Granite Creek Capital Partners, and the merger integrates Trace’s engineering operations into Seedbox’s platform.Founded in 2012 by Matt Dannenfeldt, Seedbox provides reusable seed packaging, fleet management, sensor-enabled monitoring, and real-time inventory tracking used by seed producers – corn, soy, cotton, and wheat – to manage quality and asset utilization. Matt Dannenfeldt serves as chief executive officer. Trace designs IoT devices, embedded software, cloud-connected systems, and data capture tools used by industrial and agricultural customers. The combined business monitors thousands of containers across seed production and distribution networks.

Peter Lehman led the Granite Creek transaction team.