Thoma Bravo to take risk exchange biz Accelerant private for $4bn; New Mountain latest to make fire safety play with Jensen Hughes deal
Good morning, Hubsters. Senior reporter Michael Schoeck here with the US edition of the Wire from New York.
In deal news, we’ve got an insurance risk exchange take-private to highlight involving Thoma Bravo. Over in logistics, the infrastructure arm of Goldman Sachs Alternatives is acquiring a food packaging logistics company from Apax. It’s also a business I heard was for sale in March.
As regular readers of the Thursday Wire know, I spend a good amount of time talking to confidential sources about companies-for-sale.
Today I’ll provide my regular update on our companies-for-sale coverage. We’ll highlight New Mountain Capital’s acquisition of a fire protection and life safety company I reported for sale earlier this year, from Gryphon Investors.
Let’s check out some deal news first.
Pricing risk
Earlier this morning, an insurance risk exchange platform Accelerant announced an agreement to be taken private by Thoma Bravo in an all-cash transaction worth more than $4 billion enterprise value, or $20.25 per share in cash.
Accelerant’s special committee of board members and its board of directors have approved the transaction. The deal, currently expected to close in H1 of 2027, is subject to customary closing conditions, including shareholder approval and satisfaction of regulatory approvals.
Altamont Capital Partners, the company’s largest investor, and the company’s management intend to retain equity ownership alongside Thoma Bravo.
Headquartered in Atlanta, the target operates the Accelerant Risk Exchange, a specialty insurance risk management marketplace.
“Accelerant has built something rare in specialty insurance,” said Matt LoSardo, a principal at Thoma Bravo, in a statement. “Its risk exchange connects underwriters with risk capital and gives both sides the data to price risk better than either could alone.”
PE Hub has covered the specialty finance market closely this year. Check out this Sector Spotlight on financial services by PE Hub’s Craig McGlashan to read about the key trends in the sector.
Pooling assets
Earlier this morning, Apax Partners agreed to sell Tosca, a provider of reusable asset pooling and logistics services for the food supply chain, to the infrastructure arm of Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
Based in Atlanta, Tosca serves food producers, distributors and retailers across North America and Europe.
“Tosca provides mission-critical supply chain infrastructure to non-discretionary, resilient staple food end markets,” said Charlotte Saury, managing director of infrastructure at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, in a statement. “Through decades of investments into its network of pooling assets, service centers, and customer relationships, Tosca has established itself as a global leader in reusable asset pooling.”
In March, PE Hub was briefed on Tosca being actively in the market, with Apax being advised by Deutsche Bank and William Blair. Two sources at the time said Tosca was being marketed based on about $130 million of EBITDA.
Speaking of companies in the market, we’ll turn next to our regular weekly companies-for-sale update.
Companies for sale
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 182 companies coming to the market, compared with 79 at this time last year.
But we’ve seen only 40 deal announcements emerge for companies tracked or reported by PE Hub for sale in 2026, compared with 33 at this time last year. Hopefully that increased margin should create more momentum for deal announcements later this year.
This week we saw one exit announced for a company I actively covered for sale. On Monday, New Mountain Capital announced the acquisition of Jensen Hughes, a fire protection and nuclear risk engineering firm, from Gryphon Investors.
Formed in 1939, Jensen Hughes provides mission-critical, compliance-driven engineering and consulting services to facility owners, architects and engineers, and nuclear utilities.
The sale of Jensen Hughes caps off an auction process that PE Hub exclusively reported in April when it was in its early stages. Sources told me that the company could see a valuation of up to $1.5 billion, based on fire safety industry tailwinds creating strong buyout interest in the $100 million EBITDA company.
Gryphon acquired a majority stake of Jensen Hughes in 2015 from Huron Capital Partners. The company went on a multi-continental add-on spree over its 11-year hold with Gryphon, growing from 40 locations at the time to over 100 as of late 2025.
Private equity interest in fire safety providers has been robust, and PE Hub has plenty of coverage exploring that momentum:
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
