Blackstone to Acquire Tradesmen International from Wellspring Capital Management
January 03 2017 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Blackstone (NYSE:BX) and Wellspring Capital Management LLC
(“Wellspring”) today announced that private equity funds affiliated
with Blackstone have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire
Tradesmen International, LLC (“Tradesmen”), the leading
agency-based provider of outsourced skilled craftsmen to
non-residential construction and industrial contractors in North
America, from Wellspring. Financial terms of the transaction were
not disclosed.
This Smart News Release features multimedia.
View the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170103005630/en/
Tradesmen pioneered the concept of outsourcing skilled trade
labor in the early 1990s and today is the leading national
provider, serving more than 12,000 small to medium sized businesses
and a growing number of leading engineering & construction
firms. Tradesmen has the largest outsourced skilled craftsmen
workforce in the United States.
Peter Wallace, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone,
commented, “We are excited to invest in Tradesmen, the nation’s
leading provider of outsourced skilled craftsmen. We look forward
to working with their outstanding management team to support their
exciting growth strategy.”
David Kestnbaum, a Managing Director at Blackstone, said, “We
are pleased to be partnering with Tradesmen’s strong management
team and employee base to support their track record of value-added
service delivery to customers. We are eager to assist the company
with its ongoing growth and in supporting the continued adoption of
its agency-based model across the North American market.”
Joshua Cascade, a Managing Partner of Wellspring, said, “We are
very proud to have played a role in advancing Tradesmen Founder Joe
Wesley’s vision to create job opportunities for skilled craftsmen
and provide a proven flexible labor source for contractors. The
Tradesmen organization has done an exceptional job of executing the
Company’s accelerated growth strategy to further penetrate this
large potential market and we wish all of Tradesmen’s employees and
craftsmen every success in the future.”
Michael S. Webster, CEO of Tradesmen, said, “We are very
appreciative of Wellspring’s and Joe Wesley’s support for
Tradesmen’s strong recent growth plan execution, and look forward
to partnering with Blackstone to drive our next phase of expansion
while continuing to deliver high-quality service levels to our
broad customer base.”
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter.
Robert W. Baird & Co and Rothschild are acting as financial
advisors to Tradesmen with respect to the transaction, and Paul,
Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is acting as Tradesmen’s
legal counsel. Deutsche Bank is acting as financial advisor to
Blackstone with respect to the transaction, and Simpson Thacher
& Bartlett LLP is acting as Blackstone’s legal counsel.
About Tradesmen
Tradesmen is the leading agency-based provider of outsourced
skilled craftsmen to non-residential construction and industrial
contractors in North America, offering the best, safety-minded
skilled craftsmen across a national office network. Across
Tradesmen’s national office network, industry recruitment experts
with multiple years of construction experience identify and screen
top craftsmen who are reliable, verifiably skilled and
safety-minded. Each is thoroughly vetted and provided with safety
training upon hire. For more information, please visit
www.tradesmeninternational.com.
About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We
seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our
investors, the companies in which we invest, and the communities in
which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and
flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset
management businesses, with over $360 billion in assets under
management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity,
real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit,
real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further
information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone
on Twitter @Blackstone.
About Wellspring Capital Management
Wellspring Capital Management, founded in 1995, is a leading
middle-market private equity firm that manages more than $3 billion
of private equity capital. The firm’s objective is to bring
partnership, experience and value creation to each investment. By
teaming up with strong management, Wellspring is able to unlock
underlying value and pursue new growth opportunities through
strategic initiatives, operating improvements and add-on
acquisitions. The firm functions as a strategic rather than
tactical partner, providing management teams with top-line support,
M&A experience and financial expertise, and access to
resources. For additional information, please
visit www.wellspringcapital.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170103005630/en/
For TradesmenEd Rojeck Director of Marketing and
Communications(440) 487-3300orFor BlackstoneChristine
AndersonPublic Affairs, Blackstone(212)
583-5182Christine.Anderson@blackstone.comorFor WellspringMark Semer
or Ross LovernKekst(212) 521-4800
Blackstone (NYSE:BX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Blackstone (NYSE:BX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024