CHICAGO, Ill.—December 3, 2018: Prospect Partners, LLC, a leading private equity firm investing in smaller lower-middle-market companies, today announced that it has sold its interest in Owen Equipment Company (“Owen”), of Portland, Ore., to an affiliate of private equity firm CenterGate Capital. Owen, a leading provider of infrastructure maintenance equipment in the western United States, had been a portfolio company of Prospect Partners’ third fund, Prospect Partners III, L.P., since 2013.
Owen is one of the top North American dealers of both new and pre-owned high-performance industrial environmental equipment used for street cleaning, waste management, sewer maintenance, and hydro-excavation. In recent years, Owen — which serves municipal, governmental, industrial, and commercial customers in six western states — has expanded its geographic reach, added new capabilities and product lines, and entered new market segments. Now one of the largest players in the vacuum truck/sweeper municipal rental market, Owen maintains a sizable rental fleet of Federal Signal Corporation’s Elgin® and Vactor® products and offers other high-quality equipment brands such as Heil®, Rigid®, Cues®, and Sonetics®. Owen also performs equipment service and maintenance for its customers at its four locations in Fairfield, Calif., Portland, Ore., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Kent, Wash.
“Owen is a high-growth leader in the critical infrastructure market,” said Brett Holcomb, a principal of Prospect Partners. “Over the last five years, Owen significantly grew the size of its rental fleet, completed an important strategic acquisition, introduced new products, and reached new customers in more western markets.”
Added Lou Kenter, a founding principal of Prospect Partners: “During our partnership, we have been honored to work alongside Owen’s strong and visionary management team to accomplish many key strategic goals, which resulted in significant growth for the business. To be sure, Owen continues to be an exciting company with a lot of potential.”
“Prospect Partners has been an outstanding partner,” said Earl Rose, Owen’s CEO. “They provided the experience and capital that allowed us to dramatically expand our rental fleet, dominate the municipal market, and develop new customers — all while maintaining our commitment to excellent customer service and strong vendor relationships.”
Lincoln International served as Owen’s exclusive financial advisor in this transaction.
About Prospect Partners
Prospect Partners is a leading private equity firm investing in smaller lower-middle-market companies, managing $470 million across three funds. A highly experienced and active investor, Prospect Partners focuses exclusively on management-led leveraged recapitalizations and acquisitions of niche market leaders with revenues typically under $75 million. Since 1998, Prospect Partners has completed over 150 transactions nationwide in the building of more than 50 platform companies in widely diverse niche manufacturing, distribution, and specialty service markets.