Ecological Service Partners (ESP) has secured a USD250 million equity commitment from its financial partners. The new financing will support ESP’s activities in large-scale ecological restoration of damaged wetlands, streams and habitats for endangered species, as well as in enhancing water quality for offsets to nutrient impacts.
With USD250 million of committed equity capital, ESP is now one of the best capitalised operators in the ecological service market, enabling ESP to restore thousands of acres of wetlands and hundreds of miles of impacted streams. ESP will also opportunistically pursue strategic acquisitions in the US.
ESP founders, Jud Hill and Murray Starkel, have over 50 years of experience in environmental services, along with successful investing track records in both the government and private sectors. Hill and Starkel were former colleagues at NGP Energy Capital Management (NGP), a leading energy-focused private equity firm that has managed over USD17 billion of cumulative capital commitments.
Starkel says: “Ecological Service Partners has the ability to support the over USD50 billion of near-term construction in the US that requires compensatory mitigation. ESP is positioned favourably to be the provider of choice for the massive infrastructure work in the pipeline, which will drive significant environmental and economic value creation.”
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP served as legal counsel to ESP.
