CLEVELAND and DALLAS, July 20, 2021 – Align Capital Partners (“ACP”) is pleased to announce the sale of its environmental testing and compliance platform Alliance Technical Group (“Alliance” or the “Company”) to Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (“MSCP”).
Headquartered in Decatur, AL, Alliance is a leading provider of source testing, emissions monitoring and analytical services to customers throughout the United States. Since ACP’s initial 2016 investment, the Company has achieved transformational growth. During the partnership, ATG completed 11 acquisitions, expanded into four new service lines and grew its revenue by more than 600%. This rapid growth enabled the Company to expand from four locations in 2016 to more than 20 today, while increasing headcount from less than 75 employees to over 750 today.
“Five years ago, we chose ACP as our growth partner because we believed they had the expertise and shared growth vision to help us achieve our goals,” said Alliance CEO Chris LeMay. “ACP is what we thought they would be – a great partner. They continuously supported our investments in people, process improvement and technology, enabling us to scale geographically and into new services, all while becoming an even better company for our employees and clients.”
The Alliance growth story is a great example of ACP’s dedication to helping lower middle market business owners and management teams create shared success. The experienced investment team at ACP understands the core growth and operating needs of small companies. In partnership with management, Alliance expanded from a regional source testing business to a national operation with a full breadth of emission testing and monitoring solutions.
“ACP exists to support strong management teams in their pursuit of ambitious growth goals. It’s been a pleasure to work alongside Chris LeMay and the entire Alliance team as they consistently achieved each milestone in their journey to become one of the best testing, inspection and compliance companies in the U.S.,” said ACP Managing Partner Rob Langley. “We are extremely grateful for the hard work and dedication of the entire team at Alliance, and very proud of the growth they’ve achieved during our partnership these last five years.”
This transaction marks the first exit for ACP since closing its inaugural fund in 2016. Since that time, ACP has completed 13 platform investments and 38 add-on acquisitions of growth-oriented business services, tech-enabled services and specialty manufacturing and distribution companies. In addition to Alliance, ACP owns four other testing and compliance-oriented platforms, making the firm one of the most active lower middle market investors in the category.
Operating Partner Dave Perotti, Principal Jack Parks, and Associate Chris Collins worked alongside Mr. Langley on the Alliance investment. Piper Sandler & Co. acted as financial advisor to Alliance and McGuireWoods LLP served as legal counsel to the Company. Proskauer Rose LLP served as legal counsel to MSCP.
About Align Capital Partners
Align Capital Partners is a growth-oriented private equity firm that partners with business owners and management teams to create shared success. ACP manages $775 million in committed capital with investment teams in Cleveland and Dallas. ACP brings experience and resources to help lower-middle market companies accelerate their growth, to the benefit of management, employees and the firm’s investors. ACP makes control investments in differentiated companies within the business services, technology, specialty manufacturing and distribution sectors. For more information, visit aligncp.com.