Westhook Capital has acquired Santa Rita Landscaping, a provider of residential and commercial landscaping services.
Santa Rita was founded in 1985 by brothers Brian and Garrett Ham and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. In 2018, the company had revenues of $18.6 million which ranked it as the 114th largest North American lawn care and landscaping company according to Landscape Management’s Top 150.
“We are very proud of our team and what we have built at Santa Rita,” said Brian Ham. “We are excited about Westhook’s ‘partnership-driven’ approach and we’ve been impressed by their deep expertise in the Green Industry.”
With the close of the transaction, Santa Rita will continue to be run by CEO Tanner Spross and CFO Kathi Roche, in partnership with Westhook.
Westhook invests in buyouts of US-based lower middle market companies that have at least $20 million of revenue and EBITDA of $4 million to $15 million. Sectors of interest include consumer, industrial, business services and healthcare services. The Los Angeles-based firm held a final closing of its inaugural fund, Westhook Capital Partners LP, with $140 million in commitments in September 2018.
“We are excited to partner with the Santa Rita team and look forward to supporting the company’s next phase of growth,” said Wes Knuth, a partner at Westhook.
Westhook is an active investor in the landscaping sector. In September 2018, the firm acquired Metco Landscape, an Aurora, Colorado-based provider of commercial landscape maintenance, development, design, enhancement, and snow removal services. Metco, with annual revenues of $64 million, was ranked as the 27th largest North American lawn care and landscaping company in 2019 according to Landscape Management’s Top 150. In August 2019, Westhook closed an add-on acquisition for Metco with the buy of PGM (Perfection Grounds Maintenance), a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based provider of commercial landscape maintenance services.
The Forbes M+A Group, based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, was the financial advisor to Santa Rita Landscaping on this transaction.
© 2020 Private Equity Professional | February 14, 2020