Align Capital Partners (ACP) has acquired Southwest Elevator Company, a provider of maintenance, repair, and modernization services for elevators and escalators.
Southwest Elevator is headquartered in Fort Worth, TX and provides its services to commercial offices, educational facilities, medical centers, museums, and restaurants throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.
Tom Cavinder has agreed to remain with the company as CEO and he will lead a national buy-and-build growth strategy in partnership with ACP.
“Alongside our dedicated service team at Southwest, I’m excited for our next phase of growth with ACP,” said Mr. Cavinder. “I chose to partner with ACP given their depth of resources, related sector experience, and our shared vision for executing an aggressive growth strategy within the vertical transportation services sector.”
According to ACP, the vertical transportation services (VTS) sector is fragmented with many independent operators providing a wide range of non-deferrable, safety and compliance services. ACP’s investment in Southwest Elevator will accelerate the company’s growth efforts in Texas and enable national expansion through both add-on acquisitions and greenfielded new locations.
“We’re thrilled to be working with an industry veteran like Tom in our pursuit to build a national, independent VTS company,” said Steve Dyke, a managing partner at ACP. “Tom brings with him a lifetime of industry knowledge and relationships that are the foundation of our investment in this sector.” Operating Partner John Dupuy, Vice President Kurt Smentek, and Associate Bill Zaccardelli worked alongside Mr. Dyke on this transaction.
ACP makes control investments in companies that have from $3 million to $10 million of EBITDA. Sectors of interest include specialty manufacturing, distribution and business services. The firm was founded in 2016 by managing partners Steve Dyke, Robert Langley, and Chris Jones – all formerly of The Riverside Company – and has offices in Cleveland and Dallas (www.aligncp.com).
The buy of Southwest Elevator is ACP’s eighth platform company investment completed in the past three years. ACP is investing from its inaugural private equity investment fund, Align Capital Partners Fund I LP, which closed in September 2016 with $326 million of committed capital.
This deal follows the May 2019 formation of Specialized Elevator Services by CIVC to acquire three California-based elevator maintenance and repair companies.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | September 17, 2019
