By Patty Tascarella, Senior Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times
One of Pittsburgh’s biggest private equity firms marked the 27th deal from the $265 million fund it raised four years ago.
Tecum Capital Partners staked BP Business Solutions, a Chalfont, Bucks County-based provider of waste and recycling services. The transaction was a majority recapitalization as Tecum teamed with Chicago-based private equity firm Expedition Capital Partners.
Terms were not disclosed, but Stephen Gurgovits Jr., Tecum managing partner, said its investment was toward the high end of its range. Tecum typically invests $5 million to $20 million in potential portfolio companies. He said BP’s contractual recurring revenue business model and longstanding customer relationships added to the appeal of expanding Tecum’s interest in the environmental services and waste sector, as well as the opportunity to partner with Expedition again.
“We are involved with Mike Hendrie (Expedition managing director), in Cox Transportation and Mike has a previous and very successful investment in the waste space, so his knowledge and experience made us very excited about this opportunity,” Gurgovits said.
For his part, Hendrie, in a prepared statement called Tecum “the idea capital partner here as they understand and appreciate the idiosyncrasies of this sector, and we have an aligned vision of how to create value.”
Expedition and Tecum plan to support management to accelerate BP’s growth by providing in-house waste management rental offerings, strategic acquisitions and expansion of current offerings on a more national basis.
“Acquisitions are certainly a possibility, but right now, we feel there is a lot of organic growth ahead of BP,” Gurgovits said.
Tecum, based in Wexford, is Pittsburgh’s fourth-largest private equity firm as ranked by capital under management, which was $750 million. Its team on the BP deal consisted of Matt Harnett, Husnain Safdar and Paul Oris.