Principium Capital, LLC, in January released its annual report on the state of private-equity investment in the landscape industry. The report includes existing private-equity platforms, new platforms during the past year, exit transactions and add-on acquisitions.
The report identifies 30 private-equity platforms in the lawn and landscape space, plus an additional seven platform investments in vegetation management, a record high, according to Ron Edmonds, author of the report and managing member of Principium Capital, LLC.
There were a total of eight new platform investments (six in lawn and landscape and two in vegetation management). One of the eight resulted from one private-equity firm acquiring a platform from another private-equity firm. The report also includes facility services and facility management, landscape supply and landscape software, along with international private-equity and venture capital.
“2020 was the most active year yet for private-equity investment in the landscape industry,” according to Edmonds. “This is particularly significant given the impact of the pandemic on the economy. … In many cases, private-equity firms were particularly focused on potential investments in industry sectors that provide ‘essential services,’ which brought even more interest in landscape and related businesses.
“Add-on transactions lagged platform transactions, partially because many smaller businesses received Payroll Protection Program loans and were constrained in pursuing transactions until the loans were officially forgiven,” Edmonds adds. “Activity was building toward the end of the year..”
Principium, a second-year TCIA corporate member company based in Cordova, Tennessee, is a merger-and-acquisition advisory firm that focuses on lawn, landscape, tree care, vegetation management and other facility-services businesses in the United States and Canada. The report can be downloaded from Principium’s website, www.principiumgroup.com.
