Dive Brief:
- Private equity firm Blackstone’s energy transition arm acquired a majority stake of Westwood Professional Services, an engineering and design firm for renewable energy projects, Blackstone announced Wednesday.
- Westwood’s management team and employee shareholders will retain a minority stake, but the full transaction terms were not disclosed, per the press release. Blackstone Energy Transition Partners’ stake was acquired from private equity firm Endurance Partners.
- With the Westwood closing, Blackstone Energy Transition Partners has committed roughly $1.3 billion in “control-oriented” energy transition-related equity investments since June, according to David Foley, global head of Blackstone’s energy transition arm.
Dive Insight:
Westwood focuses on providing engineering design services for renewable energy generation, power grid and public and private infrastructure buildout on the front-end of projects. Darius Sepassi, the fund’s senior managing director, and Mitchell Nimocks, its managing director, said in a joint statement that the combination of efforts will expand and enhance Westwood’s partnerships.
“Westwood provides crucial expertise and resources to support the increasing adoption of renewables and investment in power systems throughout the U.S. and is well positioned to continue building upon its impressive growth,” Sepassi and Nimocks said in the release.
Westwood CEO Bryan Powell said that its prior relationship with Endurance Partners helped scale the company into its current size. The new partnership with Blackstone “positions [Westwood] to continue expanding its capabilities in Westwood’s key end markets of renewable energy, power, land development, and public infrastructure, which are each poised to benefit from long-term growth tailwinds.”
Blackstone Energy Transition Partner’s portfolio also includes energy simulation software company Energy Exemplar, backup power provider Trystar, transmission component producer Sediver and U.S. electric grid manufacturer Power Grid Components.
The International Energy Agency estimates that meeting global decarbonization goals and migrating towards net-zero emissions by 2050 will require $4.5 trillion in investments annually.
“We’re excited about opportunities within energy transition that can generate returns for investors through driving decarbonization,” Foley said on Blackstone’s site.
