Houlihan Lokey Advises Industrial Service Solutions

Transaction: Industrial Service Solutions - Wynnchurch Capital - Element

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that the Inspection Services segment of Industrial Service Solutions (ISS Inspection Services), a leading provider of nondestructive testing (NDT), inspection, and other special process services supporting the aerospace, space, energy, and defense industries, and a portfolio company of Wynnchurch Capital (Wynnchurch), has been acquired by Element Materials Technology (Element), a global leader in testing, inspection, and certification services for highly regulated end markets. The transaction closed on September 30, 2024.

ISS Inspection Services comprises four customer-facing brands: NIC Inspection Services, PTI Industries (both accredited by the Federal Aviation Administration), PRO Inspection Services, and CTS Inspection Services. Together, these entities serve almost 1,000 customers operating in the aerospace, space, defense, and energy industries and provide advanced capabilities in NDT, inspection, and special process services such as precision cleaning and coatings. The company’s team of around 300 highly skilled employees work from one of its five facilities in the United States, or directly at customers’ sites.

Wynnchurch, headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, with an affiliate in Canada, was founded in 1999 and is a leading middle-market private equity investment firm. Wynnchurch’s strategy is to partner with middle-market companies in the United States and Canada that possess the potential for substantial growth and profit improvement. Wynnchurch manages a number of private equity funds with $9.2 billion of regulatory assets under management and specializes in recapitalizations, growth capital, management buyouts, corporate carve-outs, and restructurings.

Element is one of the world’s leading global providers of testing, inspection, and certification services for a diverse range of products, materials, and technologies in advanced industrial supply chains where failure in use is not an option. Headquartered in London, Element’s c. 9,000 scientists, engineers, and technologists work across a global network of more than 270 laboratories and support customers from early R&D, through complex regulatory approvals, and into production ensuring their products are safe and sustainable and achieve market access.

Houlihan Lokey served as the lead financial advisor and assisted in marketing, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on behalf of ISS Inspection Services and Wynnchurch. This transaction exemplifies the continued success of Houlihan Lokey’s dedicated global coverage of the testing, inspection, certification, and compliance sector while highlighting the cross-collaborative success between the firm’s coverage efforts in testing, inspection, certification, and compliance as well as aerospace and defense.

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