Huron Capital completes sale of Sciens Building Solutions

DETROIT—Huron Capital, a leading middle-market private equity firm, announced that it has sold a majority interest in Sciens Building Solutions, a prominent full-service commercial fire and life safety company, to funds managed by global investment firm Carlyle.

The company's senior management team, as well as Huron, will retain minority equity stakes in the business, and Huron will maintain a seat on Sciens' board of directors.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Sciens is focused on the fire detection and security services sector, including the design, installation, and provision of maintenance services for fire detection and protection systems in a variety of commercial, institutional, and government facilities.

Recognizing notable secular tailwinds including increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, the growing importance of "smart" buildings and systems, and demographic shifts tied to urbanization, Huron, under its proprietary ExecFactor program, partnered with industry executive Terry Heath to form Sciens in 2016 to pursue a buy-and-build investment strategy in the fire and life safety (FLS) space.

Over the past several years, Sciens made significant investments in people, technology, and corporate infrastructure, including the development of a strategic M&A program. Since its formation, Sciens experienced strong organic growth and completed 13 acquisitions becoming a premier, scaled national provider of mission critical FLS services. These efforts resulted in a greater than 35-fold increase in revenue and EBITDA transforming Sciens from a business vision into a diversified, market-leading FLS platform poised to continue its impressive growth trajectory under Carlyle's ownership.

"We have a clear focus to become the largest independent FLS integrator in North America by building a scalable platform with a world-class management team,” said Heath, Founder and CEO of Sciens. “As a result of the investments we made, we grew rapidly and successfully integrated numerous acquisitions. We are extremely grateful for Huron's partnership, and I am pleased that Jim [Mahoney] and I will be able to continue our work together as board members under Carlyle's ownership."

Sciens has been led by Managing Partner Jim Mahoney at Huron. "We have been extremely proud to support Terry and the senior management team over the last five years,” he noted. “Looking forward, we know that Sciens is poised for continued growth through M&A and would benefit from a larger partner with deep industry experience, and there is no one better to do this than the Carlyle team."

The sale of Sciens is Huron Capital's eighth exit this year.

Baird served as financial advisor and Honigman LLP served as legal advisor to Huron and Sciens.