Carlyle acts as sole lender to provide £205m of acquisition financing to support a leading UK wastewater infrastructure services provider

London, UK – 31 October 2024 – Global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) today announced that its Global Credit platform has provided a financing package of £205m to support the acquisition of Lanes Group, one of the UK’s leading providers of water and wastewater services, by funds managed by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a part of BlackRock. 

With over 4,000 employees, Lanes Group has grown significantly under private ownership since its inception over 30 years ago. The company is widely recognised as a high quality, market leader in the UK wastewater infrastructure sector, combining strong local presence, a commitment to innovation, and exceptional client delivery in its critical support to water utilities and private sector businesses across the UK.  

This transaction will support Lanes Group to accelerate its growth plans, including expanding its service offerings, strengthening its long-standing customer relationships and continuing to invest in new technologies. 

Carlyle’s Global Credit platform manages $190 billion in assets under management, as of June 30, 2024. It regularly pursues investments in privately negotiated debt and capital solutions partnering with high-quality sponsors and leading family or entrepreneur-owned companies. 

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About Carlyle

Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across its business and conducts its operations through three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Global Investment Solutions. With $435 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2024, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs more than 2,200 people in 29 offices across four continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow Carlyle on X @OneCarlyle and LinkedIn at The Carlyle Group.

Contact: 

Carlyle

Andrew Kenny

andrew.kenny@carlyle.com

+44 7816 176120

Gryphon Investors (“Gryphon”), a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, announced today that it has closed a single-asset continuation vehicle (“CV”) for Vessco Water (“Vessco” or “the Company”), a market-leading distribution and services platform in the water and wastewater treatment market. Apollo S3, CVC Secondary Partners, and Lexington Partners L.P. acted as lead investors in the transaction, with the Company’s management remaining large shareholders in the Company.

Gryphon’s Flagship Fund VI, a $2.7 billion fund, acquired Vessco, in partnership with the Company’s management team, in November 2020. During Gryphon’s nearly four years of ownership, Vessco has transformed its business, growing fivefold by expanding its product base and service capabilities to support its customers and expanding its footprint, while investing in the corporate infrastructure needed to support its local operations.

Gryphon Co-CEOs David Andrews and Nick Orum said, “We are excited to complete Gryphon’s first continuation vehicle with Vessco, which has substantial runway to continue scaling rapidly in a fragmented industry. This transaction delivered liquidity to Gryphon VI limited partners and provided them with an option to retain their interests in Vessco through the Company’s next phase of growth and value creation. The CV also provided new committed capital for growth and investment and will allow us to continue our support of Vessco, its management team, and its employees.”

Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Vessco is a high value-added distributor in the water and wastewater treatment equipment, and services market. The Company serves critical customer needs through a comprehensive suite of products, solutions and services across major market segments, including process equipment, flow control, pump and pump repair, industrial processes, and automation & controls. Its end-to-end solutions encompass design, engineering support, repair and reconstruction, and aftermarket parts and services.

“Our partnership with the Gryphon team has yielded substantial results,” said Vessco CEO Brian DeWolf. “With their operational and financial resources, we have advanced our mission to transform the water treatment industry by building strength and stability through a family of companies that provides exceptional products and services to our customers and an unwavering commitment to our manufacturers, employees, and the environment. We look forward to continued success together as we make progress toward our vision of becoming the biggest and best value-added water treatment equipment distributor in our industry, operating in all 50 states.”

Leigh Abramson and Scott Hearn, Partners and Co-Heads of the Industrial Growth Group at Gryphon, added, “Gryphon’s long experience with infrastructure and utility products and value-added distribution businesses allowed us to build a playbook to support Vessco’s growth. In partnership with a talented management team, we invested deeply in the corporate infrastructure that prioritizes collaboration throughout Vessco’s family of businesses, driving value for suppliers and customers. We expect to see continued value-creation from Vessco’s comprehensive solutions combining multiple product lines and services across geographies we serve, and increased demand for water treatment from population growth, higher water quality standards and the need to replace aging infrastructure.”

Jefferies and William Blair served as financial advisors and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to Gryphon on the transaction. Vessco management was represented by attorney Peter W. Klein, P.A., of Boca Raton, FL. Akin served as legal counsel to CVC Secondary Partners and Apollo S3. Proskauer Rose served as legal counsel to Lexington Partners.

Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (“LLCP”), a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, announced today that it has acquired USA Water (the “Company”) from Warren Equity Partners in partnership with management. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Rosenberg, Texas, USA Water is a leading provider of operations and maintenance (“O&M”) services for water and wastewater systems across the Southeast United States. The Company’s non-discretionary services enable municipalities and utility districts to entrust their water infrastructure maintenance, asset management, and regulatory compliance needs to a professional partner of scale. USA Water’s industry-leading technical expertise and comprehensive service offering play a critical role in ensuring the integrity, safety, and reliability of clean, high-quality water access.

“We are delighted to partner with USA Water, one of the leading O&M providers of water infrastructure services,” said Matthew Rich, Partner at LLCP. “USA Water has built a stellar reputation due to its ‘customer first’ culture and best-in-class service capabilities, which have driven an incredibly loyal client base and a long-term track record of consistent growth. We are excited to work with Jeff and the USA Water team to broaden the Company’s service capabilities and geographic footprint through both organic initiatives and strategic acquisitions.”

USA Water will continue to be led by CEO Jeff Haley and the existing executive team, who will maintain significant equity ownership in the Company alongside LLCP.

“I am thrilled that USA Water is joining forces with LLCP as we embark on our next chapter of growth,” said Mr. Haley. “LLCP has an established track record as an excellent partner to management teams, and we are eager to leverage their deep industry knowledge and operational expertise in order to deliver more value to our customers through our essential services.”

Across its funds, LLCP has invested extensively in the technical and route-based services sectors, including Encore Fire Protection, Technical Safety Services, Trinity Consultants, In-Place Machining, and Select Exterminating.

LLCP was advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP. USA Water was advised by Harris Williams and Holland & Knight LLP.

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• Press release 2023-07-13

The Swedish company Retein that has developed a patented technology for water separation today announced the successful closing of their latest financing round. The company is being backed by Industrifonden, Butterfly Ventures, Navigare Ventures, and existing owner Chalmers Ventures. The new financing will bring their technology one step closer to industry and people in need.

Retein, until recently named Aquammodate, was founded in 2019 and has developed a patented technology for energy-efficient and high purity water separation. The technology has the potential to reduce the cost for recovering clean water and have lower impact on the environment than traditional methods. The new investment will be used to increase the production of stabilized aquaporins and finalize the development of a filtration module with embedded aquaporins.

Simon Isaksson, co-founder and CEO at Retein, said: “We are excited to welcome Industrifonden, Butterfly Ventures, and Navigare Ventures on board our journey towards enabling sustainable reuse of resources such as clean water. Their extensive experience in scaling and advancing deep tech solutions adds additional strength on our path to realize the transformational potential of our solution”.

The patented molecular separation technology was initially developed over the course of Simon Isaksson’s PhD project under the supervision of Retein co-founder professor Martin Andersson, at Chalmers University of Technology. The foundation of the technology is a biomimetic approach to water separation, as the company has taken inspiration by how aquaporins function in diatoms. The proprietary silica stabilization allows the aquaporins to be used as an additive to various kinds of filters on a wide range of scales.

Iliam Barkino, Principal at Industrifonden, said: “We’re proud to back the team at Retein and their unique technology based on impressive science from Chalmers University of Technology. They are truly unique in the way they have been able to stabilize aquaporins in a similar way that algae do, and we believe in the team that has a mix of highly qualified technological expertise and entrepreneurial experience.”

Learn more at retein.tech ↗