Dear Business Owner,
As the summer winds down and politics heats up, a constant in the marketplace is the rapid pace of commercial HVAC and mechanical acquisitions. Our recap of the acquisition news includes thirteen recent announcements.
IEI Advisors is now tracking over 70 acquisition platforms which may help explain why you get so many calls and emails about selling your business. As overwhelming as that can be, it’s an indicator of a strong seller’s market. For owners considering an exit, you can expect to have multiple interested buyers and high valuations if you decide to sell.
Acquisition News (April 2024 to August 2024)
All the following announcements are since our last newsletter in April. To help you find the most geographically relevant acquisitions, we’ve broken the announcements down regionally.
South
After primarily making acquisitions in the Northeast, NexCore expanded south with its purchase of Sylvester & Cockrum (Winston-Salem, NC).
With the purchase of Upchurch Companies (Greenwood, MS), another acquisition platform enters the market backed by an investment management firm and a private equity firm.
Crete United, formerly Crete Mechanical, expanded southward by acquiring Legacy Mechanical Services (Atlanta, GA).
Reaching all the way from the southwest, Phoenix based Climatec bought Engineered Control Solutions (Fuquay Varina, NC).
Another northeast based platform made an acquisition in the south as Kelvin Group acquired GMS Services (Charleston, SC).
Northeast
NexCore arrived in Rochester, NY with the acquisition of two companies with common ownership, Kennedy Mechanical and Ryan Plumbing & Heating.
Kelvin Group is now in the Philly market with its purchase of Dahms Refrigeration Services (Norristown, PA).
Acquisitions continue in the manufacturer's rep market with Havtech buying The Morin Company (Columbia, MD).
Mid-West
Traditionally a janitorial and security company, Marsden Service is expanding its HVAC offerings through its acquisition of Feldkamp Enterprises (Cincinnati, OH).
FirstCall Mechanical established a Midwest footprint with its purchase of Capital City Mechanical (Columbus, OH).
Mountain West and Texas
Atlantis Services (Dallas, TX) is joining the heavy mechanical business of Orion Group.
Every few years or so a platform may exchange one private equity owner for another. Such is the case with TriplePoint (Houston, TX) as it was recently sold to Stellex Capital Management.
West Coast
Coolsys grew its northwest footprint by purchasing Universal Refrigeration (Auburn, WA).
IEI Advisors Updates
With all the M&A activity, IEI Advisors continues to support and educate owners on the opportunity by writing blogs and sharing the best relevant articles.
HVAC industry publications have not always done a great job of covering the acquisition trend so we were excited to read an educational and balanced article on ACHR News. It provides an overview of the private equity industry and some important things to understand when selling to them.
In addition to this newsletter, IEI Advisors now has a newsletter for residential HVAC owners which is posted on our blog. We’d appreciate it if you’d share it with any residential HVAC owners considering their exit options.
Axial recently published an article titled “How to Sell Your Business Quickly and Avoid Common Pitfalls.” It’s a thorough review of various steps in the process. Not all the steps apply to a commercial HVAC owner, but many do.
That’s all for our round-up of HVAC M&A news and IEI Advisor updates. You can respond to this email with any questions or to request a complimentary HVAC business valuation.
Sincerely,
Your HVAC M&A Team at IEI Advisors