Gryphon Investors Enters Agreement to Sell Trinity Consultants

Gryphon Investors (“Gryphon”), a San Francisco-based private equity firm, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its portfolio company Trinity Consultants (“Trinity” or “the Company”) to an affiliate of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Trinity, which Gryphon acquired in partnership with management in 2011, is a leading environmental consulting firm which specializes in providing air quality compliance and permitting services to its private sector clients across 48 offices in the U.S., Canada, China, the Middle East and the UK. The Company also provides other high value environmental consulting services related to environmental health & safety (EHS) performance and risk management, occupational health and toxicology, and aquatic sciences, while also supporting its clients’ EH&S training staffing needs and implementing technology solutions for EH&S information management systems and modeling analyses.

Working with Gryphon and Chairman Peter Regan, the Company expanded its service offerings to include industrial hygiene, toxicology, and aquatic ecology, entered new markets including Canada and the Middle East, and completed 10 acquisitions, while continuing to increase its market share. “We are delighted to have partnered with the Trinity management team and to have supported their efforts to grow and evolve this market-leading company. We are excited that this exit positions Trinity for continued success, while also generating highly attractive returns for Gryphon’s limited partners and co-investors,” said Nick Orum, Gryphon’s Co-Founder and President.

Gryphon Partner and Business Services Group head Alex Earls added, “We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Trinity management team during the past four years and are pleased to have helped them exceed their operational and financial goals.  We wish them the best as they continue to build Trinity into the leading environmental consulting firm.”

Trinity CEO Jay Hofmann added, “Gryphon and Pete Regan have been great partners for Trinity and I appreciate their value-added support as we built the Company into a stronger, more diverse organization.  We are looking forward to having a similarly strong partnership with Levine Leichtman as we continue to execute on Trinity’s growth plan.”

William Blair acted as lead advisor to Gryphon and the Company, while Harris Williams and Lincoln International served as co-advisors on the transaction. Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Gibson Dunn LLP served as company counsel on the transaction.

About Gryphon Investors

Based in San Francisco, Gryphon Investors (www.gryphoninvestors.com) is a leading private equity (PE) firm focused on profitably growing and competitively enhancing middle-market companies in partnership with experienced management. With approximately $1.4 billion of cumulative equity commitments, the firm has an extensive track record of leading equity investments of $35 to $100 million per portfolio company with sales ranging from approximately $50 million to $400 million. Gryphon prioritizes investment opportunities where it can form proactive partnerships with owners and executives to build leading companies, utilizing Gryphon’s capital, specialized professional resources and operational expertise.

About Trinity Consultants

Founded in 1974 in Dallas, Texas, Trinity Consultants operates in 48 locations across the U.S. and Canada, the U.K., China, and the Middle East. Trinity supports mostly industrial facilities with regulatory environmental compliance, specializing in air quality permitting and compliance management. In addition to environmental consulting, Trinity’s other operating divisions provide BREEZE® environmental modeling software, implement technology solutions for EH&S information management, provide professional EHS training, and support EHS staffing needs. Subsidiary SafeBridge Consultants® serves the life sciences industries with occupational health science and toxicology.

About Levine Leichtman Capital Partners

LLCP is a Los Angeles, California based private investment firm that has managed approximately $7.0 billion of institutional capital since its inception.  LLCP invests in middle market companies located in the United States and Europe.  LLCP invests its capital through private equity partnerships and various debt and leveraged loan funds.  LLCP is currently making new investments through Levine Leichtman Capital Partners V, L.P., Levine Leichtman Capital Partners SBIC Fund, L.P., Levine Leichtman Capital Partners Private Capital Solutions, L.P., Levine Leichtman Capital Partners Europe, L.P. and LLCP Co-Investment Fund, L.P.  LLCP has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Chicago, London and The Hague.  For further information please see www.llcp.com.

Contacts

Caroline Luz

Lambert & Co.
203-656-2829
CLUZ@LAMBERT.COM