LongWater acquires Blastco to anchor national industrial coatings platform
What's the deal? LongWater Private EquityDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has acquired a majority stake in BlastcoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Channelview, Texas-based provider of surface preparation, industrial coatings, and tank rehabilitation services. The deal value was undisclosed. Blastco's existing leadership, including Jay Soper, will continue to run the company.
Who stays: Terry Warren, owner of TF Warren GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and founder of Blastco, keeps a minority stake and joins the board. Founded in 1983, Blastco serves municipal, federal, midstream, and industrial customers.
What's the endgame? Blastco will anchor a national platform, with LongWater and management pursuing add-on acquisitions to widen its geographic footprint, services, and customer base. The deal follows a year of LongWater thesis work mapping the coatings sector across energy, industrial, and federal infrastructure.
Why now? That research flagged a highly fragmented market of founder- and family-owned contractors, backed by recurring maintenance, repair, and overhaul demand from aging industrial assets. "Industrial coatings is exactly the kind of critical infrastructure services industry we look for at LongWater," said Neil West, senior managing director at LongWater.
What changes: Soper framed the partnership around scale. "LongWater took the time to understand our business and our customers, and they bring the capital, operating resources and acquisition experience to help us grow faster than we could on our own," he said.
The signal: Private equity continues to roll up fragmented, services-heavy industries by acquiring a platform company and bolting on smaller rivals. Founded in 2009, LongWater targets lower middle market businesses — and its Blastco bet reflects growing investor appetite for unglamorous infrastructure-maintenance niches with steady, recurring demand.
Read more: business.theantlersamerican.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
