NEW YORK, June 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Meritus Gas Partners (“Meritus”) announced today that three of its platform operating companies successfully closed add-on acquisitions during May 2024. Financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.
High Precision Gas, LLC, headquartered in Santa Fe Springs, CA, acquired the assets of EcoGreen Industries, LLC (“EcoGreen”), effective May 1, 2024. Founded in 2013 and based in Anderson, CA, EcoGreen is a supplier of pure and mixed hydrocarbon gases, ethanol and equipment to cannabis and hemp extractors.
OzArc Gas Equipment & Supply, Inc. (“Ozarc”), based in Cape Girardeau, MO, acquired the retail propane assets of Island Energy, Inc (“Island Energy”), a bulk and cylinder propane supplier located in Paragould, AR. The transaction closed on May 13, 2024. Ozarc will operate from this location, expanding its retail propane presence into northeastern Arkansas.
Effective June 1, 2024, OXARC, LLC, based in Spokane, WA, acquired the assets of Gem State Welders Supply, Inc. (“Gem State”), based in Twin Falls, ID. Founded in 1966, Gem State is an independent distributor of industrial gases, welding and safety supplies serving the southern Idaho region. Gem State is led by William Watt, who will remain with the business for a transition period following the transaction.
“We are pleased to welcome each of these companies, their employees and customers into the Meritus family,” said Meritus’ Chairman, Scott Kaltrider. “Our platform operating companies have the infrastructure, scale and management breadth to execute add-on acquisitions in their respective markets, and we encourage and support them to do so. EcoGreen, Island Energy and Gem State have excellent reputations in the regions they serve and will expand our partner operating companies’ capabilities and geographic reach. We are excited about our expansion and continuing to pursue these kinds of accretive growth opportunities.”
Founded in December 2020, Meritus is a portfolio company of AEA Investors Small Business Private Equity. Meritus is assembling a national network of high-quality independent distributors of industrial, medical and specialty gases and welding and safety supplies, located in diverse geographies and serving growing end-markets. Meritus will partner with exceptional businesses and management teams, allow them to remain independent and entrepreneurial and support them to accelerate growth, improve business quality and enhance value. Owners are invited to invest meaningful equity into the Meritus holding company to allow them to share in the success of the overall platform. Visit us online at www.MeritusGas.com.
AEA Investors LP was founded in 1968 by the Rockefeller, Mellon and Harriman family interests and S.G. Warburg & Co. as a private investment vehicle for a select group of industrial family offices with substantial assets. AEA has an extraordinary global network built over many years which includes leading industrial families, business executives and leaders; many of whom invest with AEA as active individual investors and/or join its portfolio company boards or act in other advisory roles. Today, AEA’s approximately 120 investment professionals operate globally with offices in New York, Stamford, San Francisco, London, Munich and Shanghai. The firm manages funds that have approximately $19 billion of invested and committed capital including the leveraged buyouts of middle market companies and small business companies, growth capital and debt investments. AEA Small Business is a strategy within AEA that currently manages $3 billion of invested and committed capital. The team seeks to help grow and transform companies at the lower end of the middle market by sponsoring growing companies with proven management teams and superior business models.
AEA Investors
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
Michael Freitag, Kate Thompson and Woomi Yun
+1 (212) 355-4449
AEA-JF@joelefrank.com
SOURCE Meritus Gas Partners