Houlihan Lokey Advises Kohlberg & Co.

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Kohlberg & Co., LLC (Kohlberg) has acquired a 50% stake of United States Infrastructure Corp. (USIC), the leading North American provider of utility location services. Partners Group will retain a 50% co-lead interest. Kohlberg was joined in this investment by a group of new partners that includes funds managed by Neuberger Berman. The transaction closed on November 10, 2022 and values USIC at an enterprise value of $4.1 billion.

Kohlberg is a leading private equity firm headquartered in Mount Kisco, New York. Since its inception in 1987, Kohlberg has raised $12 billion of committed equity capital. Over its 34-year history, Kohlberg has completed 85 platform investments and over 200 add-on acquisitions, with an aggregate transaction value of nearly $30 billion.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Indianapolis, USIC is a leading provider of outsourced "utility locate" services, which involve locating, identifying, and marking subsurface utility infrastructure such as pipes, cables, and fiber. These services are provided on behalf of public utilities that are required by law to ensure underground infrastructure is marked correctly before ground is broken on any new project. USIC currently serves over 1,300 customers in the U.S. and Canada across six utility markets: cable, telecom, electric, gas, water, and sewer. It has a workforce of 9,000 technicians that perform 80 million locates each year. The demand for USIC's services is set to rise due to higher excavation activity following President Biden's infrastructure bill, new 5G densification initiatives, increased awareness of the importance of conducting locates, and a shift to outsourcing on the part of utilities.

Benjamin Mao, Partner and Head of Infrastructure Services at Kohlberg, says: "We are honored to have the opportunity to work alongside Partners Group to support Mike [Ryan, President and CEO of USIC] and the USIC management team in its exciting next chapter of growth. USIC is uniquely positioned as a leading provider of mission-critical safety services to utilities and telecommunications customers who are undergoing periods of significant growth and transformation driven by grid modernization, continued technological innovation, and further accelerated by infrastructure stimulus."

Houlihan Lokey served as a financial advisor to Kohlberg. This transaction exemplifies Houlihan Lokey's dedicated focus on and continued success in the utility services sector.