AEA Completes Sale of CLS

AEA Investors’ (“AEA” or the “Firm”) Small Business Private Equity (“AEA SBPE”) team announced today that its fund has completed the sale of CLS Management Services, Inc (“CLS” or the “Company”) to a financial sponsor.

 

New York – March 27, 2024 – AEA Investors’ (“AEA” or the “Firm”) Small Business Private Equity (“AEA SBPE”) team announced today that its fund has completed the sale of CLS Management Services, Inc (“CLS” or the “Company”) to a financial sponsor. CLS is one of the largest independent providers of infrastructure and land management services for utilities, public infrastructure and clean energy infrastructure customers in the U.S.

Headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, CLS acts as an extension of its customers’ internal land management departments to survey and select project routes, secure environmental permitting, research land titles and ownership and negotiate easements with landowners. These non-construction services are critical across the lifecycle of infrastructure asset maintenance, repair, upgrade and new development activities. CLS empowers local land agents with the technology and training that only a larger, national organization can provide. Customers highly value the Company’s national footprint, its full-service offering and its proprietary technology platform. Over the course of AEA SBPE’s investment period, CLS completed several highly strategic acquisitions, invested in digital marketing, developed an in-house online training program, and overhauled its proprietary technology solution, CLSLiNK, which have enabled CLS to achieve significant growth.

About AEA
AEA Investors LP was founded in 1968 by the Rockefeller, Mellon and Harriman family interests and S.G. Warburg & Co. as a private investment vehicle for a select group of industrial family offices with substantial assets. AEA has an extraordinary global network built over many years which includes leading industrial families, business executives and leaders; many of whom invest with AEA as active individual investors and/or join its portfolio company boards or act in other advisory roles. Today, AEA’s approximately 120 investment professionals operate globally with offices in New York, Stamford, San Francisco, London, Munich and Shanghai. The firm manages funds that have approximately $19 billion of invested and committed capital including the leveraged buyouts of middle market companies and small business companies, growth capital and debt investments. AEA SBPE is a strategy within AEA that currently manages $3 billion of invested and committed capital. The team seeks to help grow and transform companies at the lower end of the middle market by sponsoring growing companies with proven management teams and superior business models.

About CLS Management Services
Founded in 1985, CLS is one of the largest independent providers of infrastructure and land management consulting services in the U.S. The Company provides a comprehensive suite of land management services including right of way, route selection, title and acquisitions, environmental permitting, archaeological / cultural studies and design and engineering support, among other related field services to both public and private sector clients in utility, public infrastructure and clean energy infrastructure end markets. CLS is regarded as a premier provider of land management services due to its national footprint, high-quality recruiting and training capabilities, proprietary project management software and full-service offering.

Investor Contact
AEA Investors
Investor Relations
+1 (212) 644-5900
AEAIR@aeainvestors.com

Media Contact
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
Michael Freitag, Kate Thompson, Woomi Yun
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AEA-JF@joelefrank.com