OFS Energy Fund Partners With Experienced Management Team to Acquire VanZandt Controls

5/7/17

OFS Energy Fund has partnered with Larry Richards and Dave Latch to acquire VanZandt Controls, LLC, an automated valve distribution and service company based in Odessa, Texas. VanZandt has developed a strong reputation in the west Texas area for its superior products and services. Richards Management plans to utilize VanZandt as a platform to build a market-leading provider of premier valve automation and instrumentation components to the energy industry.

Acquisition of VanZandt Controls, LLC

VanZandt was founded in January 2015 by Lance VanZandt in Midland, Texas. The Company specializes in the packaging, distribution, and servicing of automated valves. Lance has quickly grown VanZandt into one of the top providers of automated valves in west Texas. The Company serves blue chip upstream, midstream, and downstream customers active in the construction of energy-related infrastructure throughout the Permian Basin. For his achievements, Lance was recently selected by the Small Business Administration as the Entrepreneur of the Year in the Permian region. Lance will remain with the Company as a member of its senior management team, serving as the Vice President of Sales. Prior to founding VanZandt, Lance was a top automated valve salesman at both Precision Measurement and Control (acquired by AGI Specialty Valves) and Bertrem Products.

Partnership with Richards Management

In acquiring VanZandt, OFS partnered with Larry Richards and Dave Latch, both former senior management team members at Hy-Bon Engineering and Key Energy Services. While at Hy-Bon, Larry served as CEO and grew the Company from a regional packager of vapor recovery units to a global leader in vent gas management solutions with projects in 35 countries and every major oil basin in the United States. Dave served as the Vice President of Operations of Hy-Bon throughout Larry's tenure as CEO and led the company's service center expansion. Larry and Dave ultimately sold Hy-Bon to Regal Beloit in February 2014.

Larry plans to leverage VanZandt's established distribution network to create a market-leading provider of premier automated valve, controls, and instrumentation components that have demand across multiple packaged energy products and in the buildout of energy infrastructure. Larry also plans to expand into new geographic segments and diversify VanZandt's legacy customer base by targeting customers in the midstream and downstream energy verticals.

OFS was introduced to Larry during his time at Hy-Bon. OFS began exploring a partnership and evaluating acquisition candidates with Larry in early 2016. Larry currently serves as an industry advisor to the Board of Directors of Bold Production Services, an OFS portfolio company.

"We are very excited to partner with Larry and his team in the acquisition of VanZandt. Larry has an established track record of successfully growing and selling companies, as he demonstrated during his time at Hy-Bon. We believe that VanZandt is the perfect platform to execute on Larry's vision of creating a market-leading distributor of premium components used in energy-related applications," said Jerad McMayon, Partner at OFS.

"Lance and his team have built an extremely well-respected company that has excelled and grown rapidly despite the downturn by providing customer-driven technical solutions, coupled with a remarkable level of customer service. We're honored to be partnering with OFS and incredibly excited about the growth opportunities and potential to leverage some truly 'best-in-class' solutions across a broader customer base and geographic area," Larry Richards said.

About OFS

OFS Energy Fund is a Houston-based private equity firm specializing in acquisitions and recapitalizations of middle-market companies in the energy industry with enterprise values between $5 million and $100 million. For more information, please visit www.ofsfund.com.

About VanZandt

VanZandt Controls, LLC specializes in valve automation, valve sourcing, instrumentation, and process controls. The Company is headquartered in Odessa, Texas. For more information, please visit www.vanzandtcontrols.com.

Recent Deals

Interested in advertising your deals? Contact Edwin Warfield.