Purchase by Sterling Partners portfolio company underscores progress in becoming leading provider of inspection services for oil and gas pipelines
Odessa, Texas, Sept. 5, 2012 – Expanding its footprint in the midstream inspection and integrity services market,Desert NDT, LLC, today announced it has acquired the assets of Midwest Inspection Services L.P., of Perryton, Texas. This is Desert’s first purchase since receiving a majority investment from private equity firm Sterling Partners in March. Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
Midwest Inspection Services has provided a variety of nondestructive testing (NDT) services to midstream oil and gas customers for more than 30 years. The acquisition of Midwest extends Desert’s service territory into Colorado and Nebraska. It also deepens Desert’s presence in the Texas Panhandle region, South Texas and western Oklahoma. The combined company will employ about 500 people.
Midwest employs more than 200 people and operates four locations, including Perryton and Pharr, Texas, Elk City, Okla., and Brighton, Colo. Its services encompass industrial radiography, ultrasonics, magnetic particle inspection, liquid penetrant inspection and certified welding inspection.
David Ezzell and his father Raymond have been co-owners of Midwest Inspection Services since 1985. David will continue to oversee operations for Midwest’s locations.
“With the addition of Midwest Inspection Services, Desert NDT is creating a powerful inspection and integrity services footprint across the country’s leading oil-and-gas production regions,” said Doug Frey, CEO of Desert NDT. “Desert now offers services across 10 states through 15 locations, including a new office established in Bismarck, N.D. to service the strategically important Bakken Shale play.”
“Desert NDT aspires to be the provider, employer and acquirer of choice in this sector, and we plan to grow our business aggressively, through both organic expansion and acquisitions,” Frey added. “We have a robust acquisition pipeline.”
“We are very pleased to join with Desert NDT, and we already have made substantial progress toward integrating our operations to ensure uninterrupted client service,” said David Ezzell. “Together, we look forward to providing our clients with best-practice service solutions.”
Alan Macksey, a Sterling Partners managing director, noted that sharply rising U.S. oil and natural gas production has boosted demand for reliable nondestructive testing services for pipelines and midstream infrastructure. “Desert NDT’s acquisition of Midwest is consistent with the strategy behind our initial investment in the business,” he said. “We back strong companies in growing industries, and Desert NDT is an emerging leader in midstream inspection and integrity services.”
About Desert NDT
Desert NDT, founded in Odessa, Texas, in 1989, started as a welding X-Ray company and has evolved into a full-service non-destructive testing company. A portfolio company of Sterling Partners since March 2012, Desert NDT offers ultrasonic testing, digital X-Ray and integrity management services in addition to the traditional X-Ray testing. Desert’s non-destructive testing services ensure the safe installation and operation of new gathering pipelines and other midstream oil & gas infrastructure. For more information please visit www.desertndt.com.
About Sterling Partners
Sterling Partners is a private equity firm with a distinct point of view on how to build great companies. Founded in 1983, Sterling has invested billions of dollars, guided by the company’s stated purpose: INSPIRED GROWTH™, which describes Sterling’s approach to buying differentiated businesses and growing them in inspired ways. Sterling focuses on investing growth capital in small and mid-market companies in industries with positive, long-term trends – education, healthcare, and business services. Sterling provides valuable support to the management teams of the companies in which the firm invests through a deep and dedicated team of operations and functional experts based in the firm’s offices in Chicago, Baltimore, and Miami.
The people at Sterling believe in ideas and ideals, in people and partnerships that drive long-term success. For more information please visit www.sterlingpartners.com.