Editor’s Note: This story has been revised from an earlier version to reflect updated revenue figures for Petrin Corp.
Brown and Root Industrial Services has acquired Petrin Corp., a 43-year-old industrial specialty services firm based in Port Allen, and its affiliate, Scaffolding Rental and Erection Services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The addition of Petrin Corp.’s services to Brown and Root’s engineering, construction and maintenance capabilities is a key step in the company’s plan to develop a comprehensive service offering, according to Brown and Root President and CEO Andy Dupuy.
“Petrin is an excellent company,” Dupuy says in a prepared statement. “We’ve worked beside them many times over the years and know firsthand the quality, dependability and integrity of their work.”
The acquisition also marks the latest addition to the growing number of companies owned in whole or in part by Bernhard Capital Partners, the private equity firm formed in 2013 by Jim Bernhard and several of his top associates from The Shaw Group after that company’s acquisition by CB&I.
BCP created Brown and Root in Baton Rouge last July, resurrecting an old, established name and combining two companies—Wink Engineering, a formerly New Orleans-based firm it had acquired in June, with an industrial services division of Houston-based KBR.
In the six months since, Brown and Root has expanded its operations in the downstream, refining, petrochemical, chemical and manufacturing sectors. Prior to the Petrin acquisition, it employed some 6,000 workers in North America, including 60 in the corporate office on Corporate Boulevard and 500 field employees in south Louisiana.
The acquisition of Petrin Corp.,which ranked 91st on Business Report’s list of Top 100 Private Companies and had revenues in excess of $100 million, according to Dupuy, will add some 750 employees to the mix.
In a prepared statement, Petrin executives say becoming part of Brown and Root makes sense for the company and its longtime customers.
“As part of Brown and Root we can … offer our customers a larger range of services and provide increased opportunities for our many dedicated employees,” says Petrin CEO Jim Hall.
Petrin’s executive management team will remain in place under the new ownership.
Brown and Root is one of four portfolio companies under the BCP umbrella, which is focused on investing in the energy services industry. In the past year alone, BCP has acquired mechanical, electrical and industrial construction firms, as well as pipe fabrication facilities, engineering companies and environmental consulting firms. Together, the companies owned in whole or in part by BCP have more than 14,000 employees throughout the country, though primarily concentrated in the Southeast.
—Stephanie Riegel
