Audax Private Equity Announces Investment in Centerline Communications

Audax Private Equity (“Audax”) announced today that it has acquired a controlling interest in Centerline Communications LLC (“Centerline”), a leading professional services organization focused on the design, build, and maintenance of wireless and wireline network infrastructure from Wincove Private Holdings, LP (“Wincove”) and Stone-Goff Partners (“Stone-Goff”). This transaction took place in August 2021 and terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Josh Delman, Founder and CEO of Centerline, will continue to lead the company alongside the existing management team. Josh and Wincove will maintain minority ownership positions in the company alongside Audax.

The investment will support Centerline’s continued organic and acquisition growth as it pursues its mission to grow its national footprint and further expand its scope of services focused on the development and maintenance of critical network infrastructure.

Since Audax’ initial investment, Centerline has completed three acquisitions that have helped expand the company’s geographic coverage and range of service offerings: Maicom LLC (“Maicom”), which closed in August 2021; P. Marshall & Associates (“PM&A”), which closed in December 2021; and J5 Infrastructure Partners (“J5”), which closed in December 2021.

Maicom is a critical infrastructure focused services organization based in North Andover, MA, that provides critical infrastructure installation and maintenance for major multiple-system operators (“MSO’s”) throughout the United States and Canada in support of their networks. Centerline acquired Maicom from the Boston-based investment firm, Heritage Holding.

PM&A is an engineering, real estate, and construction management organization based in Atlanta, GA that provides professional services to national wireless operators and major infrastructure owners throughout the southeast and gulf coast of the United States.

J5, based out of Irvine, CA, is a real-estate, construction management, and engineering firm supporting national wireless operators and several national and regional broadband providers throughout the western United States. Centerline acquired J5 from Raleigh-based investment firm, Ridgemont Equity Partners. The founders of each business (Paul Maiuri from Maicom, Patrick Marshall from PM&A, and John Barker from J5) and their respective management teams are planning to remain with the combined platform. With these strategic acquisitions, the Centerline platform now has over 1,200 professionals helping to support the deployment of critical infrastructure throughout the United States and Canada.

Josh Delman, Founder and CEO of Centerline, said, “We are thrilled to be partnering with Audax and look forward to benefitting from their deep industry expertise. We believe this partnership will help us to meet the growing demand within our customers to work with larger, self-performing service organizations that can provide turn-key solutions to critical infrastructure within their national networks. We are excited to have expanded our coverage through our recent acquisitions and to be diversifying our services within the platform to better support our customers.”

“We believe Centerline is well-positioned to grow organically and through acquisitions as it continues its mission to build out a broad range of critical infrastructure services nationally,” said David Wong, Managing Director of Audax. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the company’s highly-experienced management team to help take the business to the next level.”

Keybanc Capital Markets acted as an advisor to Centerline in the transaction with Audax and Husch Blackwell served as legal counsel. Ropes & Gray LLP and Fredrikson & Byron served as legal counsel to Audax.