Gryphon Investors Announces Majority Investment in JENSEN HUGHES

December 8, 2015 | By Business Wire News

SAN FRANCISCO

Gryphon Investors (“Gryphon”), a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA, has completed a majority investment in JENSEN HUGHES (the “Company”), the world’s #1 consulting firm specializing 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.

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.

Phil Rogers stated that “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,” said David Andrews, the founder and CEO of Gryphon.

Alex Earls, a Partner at Gryphon and Head of its Business Services Group, added, “We are very enthusiastic about the chance to invest in JENSEN HUGHES, the market leader in providing specialized engineering services to the built environment and to support its organic and acquisition growth strategy.”

Phil Petrocelli, an Operating Partner at Gryphon, said, “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.”

Lincoln International and Deloitte Corporate Finance acted as financial advisors to Gryphon and Moelis & Company acted as financial advisor to JENSEN HUGHES. Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal advisor to Gryphon, Honigman Miller Schwartz & Cohn acted as legal counsel to the Company and Brown Rudnick acted as legal counsel to JENSEN HUGHES management.

About JENSEN HUGHES

JENSEN HUGHES (www.jensenhughes.com) is the global leader in specialty engineering consulting services for the built environment. Our engineers, consultants and scientists develop innovative and cost effective solutions involving fire protection systems design and analysis, code consulting, hazard and risk assessments, forensic engineering, fire research, development and testing, commissioning and security services. Operating from offices in North America, Asia and the Middle East, JENSEN HUGHES consulting teams participate on projects around the world.

About Gryphon Investors

Based in San Francisco, Gryphon Investors (www.gryphoninvestors.com) is a leading private equity (“PE”) firm focused on profitably growing and competitively enhancing middle-market companies in partnership with experienced management. For numerous consecutive quarters and years, Gryphon has been ranked in Preqin’s prestigious quarterly PE report as one of North America’s top-decile firms based on consistency of strong investment returns. With approximately $1.8 billion of cumulative equity commitments, the firm has an extensive track record of leading equity investments of $35 million to $150 million per portfolio company with sales ranging from approximately $50 million to $500 million. Gryphon prioritizes investment opportunities where it can form proactive partnerships with owners and executives to build leading companies, utilizing Gryphon’s capital, specialized professional resources, and operational expertise.