Houlihan Lokey Advises PROtect
Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that PROtect, a portfolio company of Spire Capital, has been acquired by Sterling Investment Partners. The transaction closed on November 5, 2024.
Headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, PROtect is one of the nation’s fastest-growing, tech-enabled testing, inspection, certification, and compliance businesses of scale. The company provides unique, mission-critical reliability as well as risk and compliance solutions that safeguard clients from incidents, unplanned downtime, and regulatory non-compliance issues. With 500+ employees performing work in 40+ states across the United States, PROtect serves a diverse client base across large, regulatory-driven markets, including renewable energy, infrastructure and manufacturing, petrochem and refining, and the energy value chain.
Founded in 2000, Spire Capital is a New York-based private equity firm focused on lead and control investments in middle-market companies within the technology-enabled business services, media, education, and communications sectors. Spire Capital leads buyout investments in its areas of expertise and believes its deep industry experience and network of relationships are invaluable in helping its portfolio companies grow and create value.
Sterling Investment Partners is a leading private equity firm that has been building leading middle-market companies for over 30 years with a highly experienced, cohesive team of senior investment professionals. Sterling Investment Partners focuses on control investments in value-added distribution and business services, acquiring businesses that the firm believes have strong, sustainable competitive advantages and significant opportunities for value creation. Over its history, Sterling Investment Partners has completed more than 230 transactions, representing over $30 billion in aggregate value, and was recently ranked a Top 10 performing middle-market private equity firm globally by Dow Jones-HEC Paris.
Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to PROtect and Spire Capital and assisted in marketing, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on their behalf. This transaction exemplifies the continued success of Houlihan Lokey’s dedicated coverage of the testing, inspection, certification, and compliance sector.
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