GSAM lining data center contractor Divcon up for sale, sources say; Broad Sky closes sale of professional services firm Smith + Howard to TPG
Good morning, Hubsters. Senior reporter Michael Schoeck here with the US edition of the Wire from New York.
It may be August in dealmaking land, but PE Hub is still cranking out the exclusive stories! Today we’re highlighting a professional services deal close that Obey Martin Manayiti was first to report and a data center power engineering firm coming up for sale by Goldman Sachs, which I published Wednesday afternoon.
And I’ll provide my regular Thursday update on our companies for sale coverage. Today we’ll highlight the sales of gChem, Gong cha and Trinity Consultants, companies I published on and tracked for sale.
On to our professional services exclusive.
Southern exposure
Broad Sky Partners quadrupled revenues in Smith + Howard, an Atlanta-based assurance, tax, advisory and wealth management firm, before exiting the platform to TPG Growth, PE Hub has learned. Smith + Howard is the debut exit for the New York-based mid-market investor.
The deal, previously announced in June, closed recently. “In three and half years with our partnership with Smith + Howard, we were able to collectively move very fast. During that period, revenues grew 4x and we made nine add-ons,” Broad Sky CEO Tyler Zachem told PE Hub.
Under Broad Sky’s ownership, Smith + Howard expanded from a single Atlanta office with approximately 100 employees into 11 locations across the Southeast US and India, with approximately 800 professionals.
“This is an investment which is in a very large, fragmented and attractive part of the economy. The business is durable; tax and audit advisory are needed in good and bad times,” said Zachem. “There is ongoing demand that exists in companies of all sizes, there are audits, compilations, reviews, employee benefit plans audits, and there is installed demand for Smith + Howard services.”
TPG is investing in Smith + Howard through TPG Growth, the firm’s mid-market and growth equity platform.
Broad Sky’s playbook, according to Zachem, is to find attractive companies in the firm’s target industries that can be scaled both organically and inorganically. Typically these are founder-owned businesses receiving their first institutional capital.
Demand for tax and audit services is durable, based on factors such as the ever-changing regulatory environment.
“Filing requirements, tax codes, and more sophisticated structuring needs are constantly getting tinkered with regardless of the administration,” he said. “The changes from the OBBB (One Big Beautiful Bill) brought even more requirements, increasing outsourcing to experts given the ongoing changes that are difficult to keep up with.”
Mission-critical
We’ll hop from tax and wealth advisory to data center power engineering. On Wednesday, PE Hub exclusively reported that Divcon Controls, a power contractor for data center owners, is coming to market in the coming months, three sources briefed on the matter told me. Goldman Sachs Alternatives is the company’s financial sponsor.
Based in Dallas, Divcon provides building management and electrical power monitoring services for data centers and other mission-critical facilities, enabling customers to control, automate and monitor energy and power functions.
The investment firm recently retained JPMorgan Securities as Divcon’s sellside adviser to prepare marketing materials for the energy service provider to data centers, the three sources said.
The company is appealing to a broad slate of sustainability-focused private equity firms and some strategics like Honeywell and Rockwell Automation, one of the sources said.
With cyclical market tailwinds creating increased valuations for providers of power installation and engineering to data center companies, Divcon could sell for more than 15x-17x its EBITDA of $70 million, pegging the company at a valuation of $1 billion-$1.2 billion, two of the sources said. The median multiple for mature B2C professional, scientific and technical service providers over the last 12 months is 13.6x, according to SIPA privateMetrics, part of PEI Group.
For more on multiples in the power infrastructure business, see our previous coverage.
GSAM declined to comment. JPMorgan did not respond to requests for comment.
Companies for sale
While deal news tends to slow down in August, the rate of companies testing the market remains strong as we look at potential exits in H2. So far this year I’ve been briefed by confidential sources on 176 companies coming to the market, compared with 79 at this time last year.
But we’ve seen only 38 deal announcements emerge for companies tracked or reported by PE Hub for sale in 2026, compared with 33 at this time last year.
But while the deal announcement run rate is similar to last year, the fact that I’ve been briefed on so many more companies coming to market suggests that H2 should be busier than in 2025. Just this week, there were three new announcements for companies PE Hub tracked for sale, versus none in the same week last year:
- In the first deal, BC Partnersand Abrams Capital-backed ContextLogic announced an agreement to acquire Gaylord Chemical (gChem), a specialty chemicals company, from EagleTree Capital in an $850 million enterprise value transaction.
gChem will become ContextLogic’s second operating business, following its early 2026 acquisition of US Salt.
Founded in 1962 and based in Louisiana, gChem manufactures dimethyl sulfide (DMS), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dinitrogen tetroxide (NTO) and is the originator and exclusive producer of Procipient (Dimethyl Sulfoxide USP, PhEur). These are used in technically demanding applications such as pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, agriculture, performance chemicals and aerospace.
PE Hub reported in late 2025 that Morgan Stanley was in the early stages of putting gChem on the market to potential buyers. gChem generated $70 million of EBITDA over the last year, while sources said large-cap PE and some infrastructure funds would be the most likely buyers.
PE Hub connected with ContextLogic president and BC Partners director Mark Ward for color on what drove the deal for gChem.
“ContextLogic’s acquisition strategy is industry agnostic; our criteria is that companies should be niche, competitively advantaged, and long-duration,” Ward told PE Hub. “gChem met all these criteria: it operates in a small but high-value corner of the solvent market, has durable competitive advantages and is situated in markets with structural tailwinds,” he added.
BC Partners and Abrams Capital together represent more than 60 percent of ContextLogic’s total equity ownership, sources familiar with the matter told PE Hub.
- In the second deal, Oak Hill Capital reached an agreement to sell environmental compliance consulting firm Trinity Consultants to Veritas Capital. The deal represents the second deal PE Hub has learned about this year where Veritas wound up as the buyer.
Veritas has been busy on the deal front this summer. Its first acquisition was BGIS, sold earlier this summer by CCMP Capital Partners for $2.2 billion. The second was Trinity Consultants, announced Wednesday, and the third was Saber Power, which it announced it would acquire this morning from Greenbelt Capital for undisclosed terms.
Over the springtime, sources told me that Oak Hill was initiating a sale process for Trinity, following the retention of Baird and Harris Williams as sellside advisers for the $175 million EBITDA firm.
With more than 10,000 customers worldwide, Trinity serves the advanced manufacturing, healthcare, data center and commercial facilities market to address environmental, engineering and compliance challenges.
- And in the third deal, TA Associates announced an agreement to sell teahouse brand Gong cha to Bain Capital for undisclosed terms.
Since TA’s initial investment in 2019, Gong cha has undertaken multiple value creation initiatives, including a global expansion strategy and completion of strategic M&A, such as the recent acquisition of its US East and West Coast master franchisee rights.
Gong cha operates about 2,200 stores in 33 global markets, serving more than 150 million beverages each year.
In June, confidential sources told me the popular teahouse chain was being shopped by JPMorgan at $70 million EBITDA.
Got tips on companies coming up for sale? Shoot me a note at michael.s@pei.group to touch base on background.
That’s a wrap for me. Tomorrow, Nina Lindholm will be with you for the Europe Wire, and John R Fischer will be back with you for the US Wire.
Cheers,
Michael
