Gryphon Investors (“Gryphon”), a middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, has completed a majority investment in Jensen Hughes, a specialist in fire protection engineering, fire code consulting and related life safety services in commercial, institutional, and industrial facilities.
CEO Phil Rogers and the remainder of the Company’s management team have retained a significant ownership position in the company and will continue to lead Jensen Hughes after the closing of the transaction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Gryphon has a long and successful history of investing in engineering and other professional services companies and we look forward to working with management as they continue building Jensen Hughes into a leading provider of specialty engineering services.”
Based in Baltimore, MD, Jensen Hughes offers a full suite of non-discretionary, mission-critical services including fire safety systems design & analysis, code consulting, risk assessment, forensic investigation & testing, security, and research & development. The Company provides services across a diversified set of 11 end markets and to a broad base of blue-chip customers including more than half of Fortune 500 companies. The Company also has an expansive geographic reach across 40 offices in North America and nine offices in Asia and the Middle East and provides services in 100 countries. Middle-market private equity firm Huron Capital Partners acquired the Company in 2011 and under its ownership the Company made nine strategic acquisitions to become the global market leader.
Rogers says: “Management is very excited to be partnering with Gryphon to support our efforts to continue achieving strong growth organically and through add-on acquisitions as we maintain our focus on safety. Gryphon is one of the premier investors in the engineering services space and has a large capital base from which to support our successful add-on acquisition strategy.”
“We are delighted to acquire Jensen Hughes in partnership with the management team as our second platform investment in our new fund Gryphon IV. Our Business Services Group’s proactive origination focus on niche engineering services companies and a couple of years of outreach to Huron Capital enabled us to expeditiously complete our underwriting of this recession-resistant business with numerous growth strategies which Gryphon is well-positioned to support with our capital and expertise,” says David Andrews, the founder and CEO of Gryphon.
Alex Earls, a Partner at Gryphon and Head of its Business Services Group, adds:, “We are very enthusiastic about the chance to invest in Jensen Hughes, the market leader in providing specialised engineering services to the built environment and to support its organic and acquisition growth strategy.”
