Northleaf and AVALT Announce Acquisition of WASH

Acquisition will support growth throughout core markets in the U.S. and Canada

TORONTO & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Northleaf Capital Partners (“Northleaf”), a global private markets investment firm, announced that funds managed by the firm, alongside AVALT, a Boston-based investment firm, have signed definitive agreements to acquire WASH Multifamily Holdings Inc (“WASH” or the “Company”), a leading North American route-based laundry infrastructure services company, from EQT, a purpose-driven global investment organization. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025 upon receipt of customary regulatory approvals.

Jim Gimeson, Chief Executive Officer at WASH, said, “We are incredibly excited to welcome our new sponsors as strategic partners in WASH’s next chapter of growth. At WASH, our relentless focus on customer service, alongside continued investment in technology, has positioned us as a trusted partner to property owners across North America. This partnership marks a significant step towards deepening the value we deliver to our loyal customers and associates.”

Jared Waldron, Co-Head of Infrastructure at Northleaf, said, “We are delighted to add WASH to our infrastructure portfolio given its durable business model that has exhibited resilience through multiple market cycles including COVID-19. WASH offers an essential service with historically low correlation to the broader economy, strong inflation protection, and an attractive free cash flow generation profile.” Paul Gill, Director, Infrastructure at Northleaf, added, “WASH is highly aligned with our strategy of investing in businesses with strong downside protection and attractive opportunities for value creation.”

Marko Kivisto, Partner and Co-Founder of AVALT, said, “WASH’s industry-leading growth, customer satisfaction, and retention are a testament to the Company’s commitment to high quality service. We’re thrilled to partner with the WASH team and Northleaf to support the Company’s end customers, property managers, and employees for many years to come.” Chirag Malkani, Vice President at AVALT, added, “We are excited to continue to invest behind service and digitization to accelerate WASH’s success and growth.”

BofA Securities served as lead financial advisor to WASH and Rothschild & Co also served as financial advisor. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP acted as legal advisor to WASH. TD Securities served as financial advisor to Northleaf and AVALT. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal advisor to Northleaf and AVALT. TD Securities also provided committed debt financing for the transaction.

About WASH

WASH was established in 1947 and is today one of North America’s leading providers of route-based laundry services. WASH provides essential common room laundry services to multifamily apartments and universities under long-term contracts. WASH operates through 34 branch locations in the United States and Canada to provide industry leading customer service to an installed base of over 660,000 installed machines across 80,000 locations and the more than 4.5 million people who do their laundry in a WASH laundry room every week. WASH is headquartered in Torrance, CA, and has approximately 1,300 employees. For more information, please visit www.wash.com.

About Northleaf

Northleaf Capital Partners is a global private markets investment firm with more than US$28 billion in private equity, private credit and infrastructure commitments raised to date from public, corporate and multi-employer pension plans, endowments, foundations, financial institutions and family offices. Northleaf’s 275-person team is located in Toronto, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Menlo Park, Montreal, New York, Seoul and Tokyo. Northleaf sources, evaluates and manages private markets investments, with a focus on mid-market companies and assets. For more information, please visit www.northleafcapital.com.

About AVALT

AVALT is a private investment firm that invests its permanent capital base in leading businesses with meaningful growth and transformation opportunities. The team’s deep business building experience helps companies accelerate their growth, and its flexible capital base enables ongoing support without regard to any fixed time horizon. Target industries include Commercial & Industrial Services and Professional & Technology Services, and investments are typically backed with $50-$100M+ of equity capital. For more information, please visit www.avalt.com.

This document is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a general solicitation, offer or invitation in any Northleaf-managed funds in the United States or in any other jurisdiction and has not been prepared in connection with any such offer. All information is as at the date of this publication and has not been updated since.