Houlihan Lokey Advises Inland Pipe Rehabilitation

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Inland Pipe Rehabilitation LLC (IPR), a portfolio company of J.F. Lehman & Company (JFLCO), has acquired Inliner from Granite Construction Inc. (NYSE:GVA) (Granite) and certain affiliated companies. The transaction closed March 16, 2022.

Founded in 1973, IPR is a leading water infrastructure services company providing diversified trenchless pipe rehabilitation solutions and technologies for municipal waste, storm, and potable water applications. IPR’s technologies and services provide customers with minimally disruptive, cost-effective solutions to manage aging underground infrastructure.

Founded in 1992, JFLCO is a leading middle-market private equity investment firm. In the 30 years since inception, JFLCO has invested in over 80 companies, with its most common investments being traditional buyout and divestiture transactions. The firm seeks to invest in the aerospace, defense, maritime, government, and environmental sectors.

Inliner is a leading provider of trenchless pipe rehabilitation services to the wastewater and storm water infrastructure industry. Inliner has successfully installed more than 35 million feet of cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) throughout all regions of the U.S. and Canada. In addition to CIPP installation, the company’s teams work in various geographic and climatic conditions rehabilitating both circular and noncircular piping structures ranging from 4 inches to 120 inches in diameter. In 2018, Granite acquired Canada-based LiquiForce and U.S.-based Layne Christensen as add-ons to the Granite family, forming the company’s Granite Inliner division.

Granite is one of the largest diversified construction and construction materials companies in the U.S. It operates in the transportation, water infrastructure, and mineral exploration markets.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to IPR and assisted in valuing, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on behalf of the company and JFLCO. This transaction highlights the team’s expertise and continued success advising companies in the environmental services sector, having advised on 18 environmental services transactions since January 2021. Additionally, this transaction highlights Houlihan Lokey’s market leadership position in the water and wastewater infrastructure services market, having previously advised Hoffman Southwest on its sale to Orix Capital Partners; IPR on its sale to JFLCO; and New Mountain Capital on its acquisition of Aegion.