Industry: Building Materials & Services / Design Services
Transaction: Sale to Financial Buyer


MACTEC is a leading consulting firm providing engineering, environmental and remediation services to public and private clients worldwide. MACTEC was sold to cash out its largest shareholder and to liquidate its ESOP. The ESOP was negatively impacting the company's cash flow, as the plan required the company to fund redemptions from the ESOP as employees left the company.

GMB was retained as MACTEC's exclusive financial advisor to sell the company. GMB conducted a broad auction process to strategic and financial buyers, resulting in the successful sale of the company to CHP Capital Partners and Cherokee Equity Holdings. Management rolled over its entire equity portion without any liquidity event. GMB assisted in the placement of a debt acquisition facility with Bank Paribas as partial financing for the transaction.

Cherokee Equity Holdings was a real estate private equity fund that acquired environmentally impaired properties. Its interest in MACTEC was to outsource the environmental remediation on selected properties to MACTEC, when appropriate.

One of the key challenges in the transaction was the treatment of the MACTEC ESOP, which eventually was paid in full as part of the transaction.

Three years later, GMB provided valuation services for CHP and Cherokee in the sale of MACTEC to Nautic Partners and Wachovia Capital Partners.

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