Investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (“MSCP”), the middle-market focused private equity team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, have acquired Apex Companies (“Apex” or the “Company”), a leading provider of end-to-end environmental consulting and engineering solutions, from Sentinel Capital Partners (“Sentinel”). MSCP is partnering with the current management team led by CEO Dave Fabianski, who will continue to lead the business. Sentinel Capital Partners will maintain a minority position in the Company post-closing.
Apex, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, is a leader in consulting and engineering services across a broad range of environmental and infrastructure needs. The Company serves public sector clients at the federal, state, and municipal levels, as well as thousands of private sector clients across retail, industrial, real estate, technology, financial services and energy end markets. An established leader in stormwater compliance and environmental services, Apex also offers a robust portfolio of services in water infrastructure & water resources, compliance & assurance (including ESG consulting), health & safety, transportation, and civil engineering.
“Apex’s solutions serve clients and communities across a broad range of environmental and infrastructure needs, and seek to ensure that corporations, government agencies and municipalities achieve and maintain regulatory compliance. In addition to being a highly respected provider of environmental services, Apex is also a leader in the attractive and high-growth stormwater compliance industry,” said Eric Kanter, Managing Director and Head of Industrials at MSCP. “We believe the company’s record of expansion, both organically and through accretive M&A, has generated substantial momentum for continued growth. We are excited to partner with Dave and the Apex leadership team to drive continued success in Apex’s core service offerings and to pursue strategic M&A that adds additional geographic presence, service capabilities and customer diversity.”
Dave Fabianski, President and CEO of Apex, stated, “Partnering with MSCP provides us with a tremendous opportunity to access additional capabilities and resources that we believe will help us further enhance our value proposition and service offering. Together with MSCP we will accelerate our strategic growth pursuits in water, environmental, infrastructure, and ESG, while expanding our investment in Apex’s people, culture, and digital strategies. The outlook in our industry has never been better, and we are excited to partner with the MSCP team for our next chapter of growth.”
MSCP’s acquisition of Apex represents its second investment in environmental services, following the acquisition of Alliance Technical Group in 2021, and is an area where the team has deep institutional knowledge and domain expertise. It also is in line with MSCP’s and Morgan Stanley’s broader commitment to ESG.
Latham & Watkins served as legal counsel to MSCP, and Harris Williams and Raymond James served as MSCP’s financial advisors. Carlyle and Churchill Asset Management acted as the administrative agents, bookrunners and arrangers on the financing.
