New Mountain Capital Completes Combination of Azuria Water Solutions and Inframark

• Creates a leading, end-to-end provider of tech-enabled solutions that helps municipal water and wastewater utilities lower costs, improve compliance, and optimize capital allocation
• Combined platform will generate more than $2.5 billion of revenue
• Azuria will continue to be owned by funds managed by New Mountain Capital (“New Mountain”), including a newly raised $2.4 billion single-asset continuation vehicle and New Mountain’s latest flagship private equity fund, New Mountain Partners VII

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New Mountain Capital, LLC (“New Mountain”), a leading growth-oriented investment firm with approximately $60 billion in assets under management, today announced the completion of the combination of Azuria Water Solutions, Inc. and Inframark, LLC (together, “Azuria”). The combined platform will generate more than $2.5 billion of revenue and offer a comprehensive set of technology-enabled solutions across the water ecosystem to help municipalities lower costs, improve compliance, and optimize capital allocation.

Azuria will continue to be owned by funds managed by New Mountain Capital (“New Mountain”), including a newly raised $2.4 billion single-asset continuation vehicle (“CV”) and New Mountain’s latest flagship private equity fund, New Mountain Partners VII, both of which have substantial unfunded capital reserved to support the future growth of Azuria. The CV fundraise was co-led by HarbourVest Partners, LLC and another blue-chip institutional investor, with a broad group of premier financial investors also participating, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and others.

New Mountain first partnered with Inframark and Azuria in 2020 and 2021 respectively as part of the firm’s longstanding sector focus in infrastructure services. Since then, both companies have been transformed, including bringing on new management teams, improving the commercial engines, developing proprietary technologies and intellectual property, and developing M&A capabilities. Under New Mountain’s ownership to date, Azuria’s combined revenue has increased by approximately 3x.

“Infrastructure services have been a key focus area for New Mountain for more than a decade, and Azuria and Inframark have both been strong performers under our ownership thus far,” said Joe Delgado and Lars Johansson, Managing Directors at New Mountain. “These companies embody our approach to business building, which has included commercial strategy revitalization, talent and career path development, AI-enabled technology investments, and an M&A strategy based upon being the ‘acquiror of choice’. We believe there is meaningful value creation ahead for Azuria as the company executes on its combined vision, and we are excited to continue partnering with the combined Azuria team.”

The municipal water services industry is a $115+ billion addressable market that benefits from long-term secular tailwinds, and the Azuria combination creates the only end-to-end, tech-enabled service provider addressing the industry’s most important service needs. Each business will leverage its independent specialization – Azuria in water and wastewater conveyance system maintenance and rehabilitation and Inframark in treatment plant operations – to provide more fulsome solutions to clients. Together, Azuria will more holistically assess and address municipalities’ most costly water challenges, including inflow and infiltration (“I&I”) and non-revenue water, which cost U.S. cities more than $100 billion annually, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. The business currently estimates it rehabilitates more than 1,000 linear miles of water and wastewater pipeline annually and treats and recycles more than 13 billion gallons of water for its customers.

“We believe this simple, powerful combined approach is an industry first,” said Rob Tullman, President and CEO, Azuria. “Utilities have historically managed pipe rehabilitation, system operations, and treatment facilities in separate silos. We have assembled the people, technologies, and capabilities to deliver comprehensive, integrated infrastructure and asset management in one place, helping municipalities extend their assets’ useful lives and avoid the massive expense of adding treatment capacity. Our goal is to help transform the way municipalities maintain their critical water and wastewater systems. By leveraging data and our team’s deep expertise, we can help clients make decisions by proactively partnering and providing recurring services under long-term contracts to manage their assets and drive higher quality outcomes”

A core tenet of Azuria’s strategy is investing in training and providing career paths for employees. The company is powered by more than 7,000 highly skilled employees whose client-first focus drives the company’s service quality. As part of this focus on employees, Azuria management and New Mountain aligned to give employees the opportunity to own equity in the company. Through that ownership, this transaction benefits the workforce with approximately 450 company-level shareholders, including 340 current non-executive employees, receiving proceeds. This strategy of broad ownership reflects New Mountain’s approach to business building and value creation.

About New Mountain Capital

New Mountain Capital is a New York-based investment firm that emphasizes business building and growth, rather than excessive risk, as it pursues long-term capital appreciation. The firm currently manages private equity, strategic equity, credit, and net lease real estate funds with approximately $60 billion in assets under management. New Mountain seeks out what it believes to be the highest quality growth leaders in carefully selected industry sectors and then works intensively with management to build the value of these companies. For more information, please visit newmountaincapital.com.

About Azuria Water Solutions

Azuria is a leading provider of technology-enabled solutions for the water industry. Since 1971, the company has remained at the forefront of sustainable, cost-effective products and technologies to address aging water pipeline infrastructure. In addition, the company delivers end-to-end solutions across treatment facility operations, engineering services, and digital solutions that address costly water infrastructure challenges to thousands of customers in North America. Azuria delivers more than 1,200 products and services through streamlined procurement channels that save cities time and money. Learn more at Azuria.com.