Houlihan Lokey Advises GPRS Holdings

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that CIVC Partners, LP (CIVC) has sold a majority stake in GPRS Holdings, LLC (GPRS) to Kohlberg & Company, LLC (Kohlberg). The management team at GPRS, led by CEO Matt Aston, will continue to lead the company and remain significant owners of the business. CIVC will also retain a significant ownership position in GPRS. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, GPRS is the nation’s largest provider of advanced scanning services for subsurface infrastructure. GPRS has an extensive nationwide network of more than 250 highly trained and experienced project managers in every major U.S. market. The company provides incredible value to their customers by supporting critical infrastructure maintenance and damage prevention services.

GPRS, the industry founder, pioneered the use of ground-penetrating radar technology for identifying subsurface structures as part of maintenance, repair, and remodeling work on existing infrastructure. The company provides a superior value proposition to its customers by delivering industry-leading accuracy in subsurface locates that significantly improve job site safety and reduce costs for clients associated with damages and site shutdowns.

J.D. Wright, Partner of CIVC, commented, “Matt and his management team have done a phenomenal job of growing GPRS to become the provider-of-choice in the utility locating and structural scanning market. We look forward to continuing to work with Matt, the entire GPRS management team, and Kohlberg in this next phase of growth.”

“CIVC was a supportive partner to management as we have expanded the business into new markets and widened the gap between our competition,” said Matt Aston. “The GPRS team is highly enthusiastic to partner with Kohlberg for our next phase of growth as we look to expand our footprint and enhance our ability to meet our customers’ needs.”

“We are delighted to partner with Matt and team. GPRS has established itself as the leading private utility locating platform,” said Benjamin Mao, Partner of Kohlberg. “We believe the company is well-positioned to accelerate its growth trajectory and execute on its long-term strategic plan.”

CIVC is a Chicago-based private equity firm investing in high growth middle-market business services companies. Since 1989, the team has invested more than $1.7 billion in 66 platform companies and currently invests from CIVC Partners Fund V.

Kohlberg is a leading private equity firm headquartered in Mount Kisco, New York. Since its inception in 1987, Kohlberg has organized nine private equity funds, through which it has raised more than $10 billion of committed equity capital. Over its 33-year history, Kohlberg has completed 80 platform investments and nearly 200 add-on acquisitions, with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $22 billion.

Houlihan Lokey served as the lead financial advisor and assisted in marketing, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on behalf of GPRS and CIVC.

This transaction exemplifies the continued success of Houlihan Lokey’s dedicated coverage of the testing, inspection, certification, and compliance market, with complementary expertise in utility services, to deliver an outstanding result to the selling shareholders.