Electrical Testing & Power Reliability
Testing, maintenance and reliability services supporting critical electrical infrastructure and equipment.
Investment Approach
What We Look For in a Durable Business
We start with the economics of a business. We look for demand that repeats because a customer needs the service to keep an asset operating, remain compliant, maintain a certification or avoid a costly failure.
Businesses built around those needs can produce durable revenue and attractive cash conversion because purchasing decisions are often driven by maintenance cycles, regulation and operational necessity. We are particularly interested in services where the customer spends relatively little to avoid a much larger operational, financial or regulatory problem.
People matter just as much. In many service businesses, customer relationships and institutional knowledge are distributed across experienced teams and embedded in how the company operates. A deep bench of skilled, licensed or specialized employees can strengthen service quality, customer retention and barriers to entry.
We also favor businesses whose cash generation can support conventional senior financing through a range of economic conditions. The capital structure should leave the company able to invest, withstand difficult periods and make decisions for the long term.
Areas of Particular Interest
ISC currently spends significant time in technical, industrial and infrastructure services, particularly businesses providing recurring maintenance, testing, compliance or repair to an existing installed base.
Testing, Inspection, Calibration & Compliance
Technical measurement, inspection and verification services driven by regulation, accreditation, quality standards and recurring customer requirements.
Water & Wastewater Services
Maintenance, monitoring, operations and compliance services supporting existing water and wastewater infrastructure.
Industrial Maintenance, Repair & Automation Support
Field service, repair, controls support and remanufacturing for installed industrial equipment and systems.
These are areas where we currently spend significant time, but the underlying business characteristics matter more to us than the industry label. We also evaluate business, commercial, industrial and select healthcare services with similar economics.
Acquisition Criteria
Normalized EBITDA
$5M – $20M
Structure
Control acquisitions
Geography
United States
Demand
Recurring or highly repeat, with limited cyclicality
Business model
Essential, mission-critical or difficult to defer
Management
Experienced leadership beyond the owner
Workforce
Skilled, licensed, certified or otherwise difficult to replace
Customers
Diversified, with low customer concentration
Cash generation
Strong conversion, with capacity for conventional senior financing
Capital intensity
Low to moderate relative to cash generation
Market structure
Fragmented or otherwise supportive of attractive long-term growth
What We Generally Avoid
- Revenue materially dependent on new construction or new capital project starts
- Project-driven earnings with material completion or timing risk
- Concentration that would make a single customer decision existential
- Businesses where the owner is the principal technical, commercial or customer relationship asset
- Heavy capital intensity relative to cash generation
- Turnarounds
- Healthcare businesses materially dependent on Medicaid or a single reimbursement regime