Houlihan Lokey Advises Strength Capital Partners

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce the placement of capital to support Strength Capital Partners (Strength Capital) in its acquisition of Grand Equipment Company, LLC (GEC or the company). The transaction closed on October 2, 2025. Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Strength Capital Partners.

Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, with offices in Denver, Colorado, and Cincinnati, Ohio, Strength Capital is a distinguished private equity sponsor known for building strong teams and unlocking value in underperforming or overlooked businesses. The firm focuses on operationally driven value creation and identifying potential where others may see stagnation. Strength Capital is an experienced lower-middle-market investment firm focused on industrial businesses and consolidations. Since becoming an independent sponsor in 2011, after pivoting from a traditional fund structure, Strength Capital has executed on 49 acquisitions across 16 platforms, delivering an approximate 3x net multiple on invested capital and approximately 35% net internal rate of return to investors. Strength Capital has completed 54 add-on acquisitions across 32 platform companies since its inception in 2000, focusing on buying down entry point multiples that are at least 1x below the platform multiple. Additionally, Strength Capital has a strong track record with rental businesses, having generated a gross multiple of capital of approximately 6x over numerous platforms.

Founded in 2000 by the current CEO, GEC is a full-service construction equipment distributor offering equipment rentals, equipment sales, and parts and service to customers across Western Michigan, with a growing presence throughout the broader Midwest. GEC has generated consistent revenue growth and profitability while serving a loyal and diverse customer base across a variety of end markets.

Strength Capital engaged Houlihan Lokey’s Equity Capital Solutions team to advise it and raise the capital necessary from new investors to effectuate its acquisition of GEC while also structuring a comprehensive financing solution across the capital stack. We successfully executed the transaction through an efficient process, meeting Strength Capital’s objectives and securing commitments from five institutional limited partners. These investors included both long-standing family office and asset manager relationships as well as SBIC funds, each of which invested significant equity and expressed strong alignment with Strength Capital’s value creation plan for GEC.

In addition to the institutional investors participating in the deal, the Strength Capital team committed a significant personal equity investment. GEC’s management team also rolled over meaningful equity, demonstrating its excitement for the business’ continued growth with Strength Capital.

This transaction highlights Houlihan Lokey’s ability to deliver favorable outcomes for our clients while maintaining investor flexibility for future acquisitions and long-term partnerships. Despite the closing process taking longer than expected, we were able to drive competition and secure strategic capital partners to support Strength Capital in the GEC transaction and potentially in future deals. Strength Capital is a new client for the Equity Capital Solutions team, and we look forward to working with them across the variety of products that Houlihan Lokey has to offer.

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