Water Infrastructure Group

Background

WIG was a Leading provider of water and wastewater infrastructure solutions in Australia and New Zealand and a non-core asset for Pentair that had been acquired as part of Pentair’s acquisition of Tyco Flow Control.

Greenstone Partners was engaged by Pentair to divest the business in a compressed timeframe.

Process

Greenstone Partners conducted an extensive market sounding program that determined distinct buyer groups for the design and construct (WIG DB&M), and operations (WIG Ops) business segments resulting in two targeted sale processes involving:

• A detailed preparation phase including extensive financial modelling and preparation of marketing materials;
• A targeted buyer contact program followed by management presentations to tier-one potential purchasers;
• Actively managing a detailed due diligence process including targeted presentations on key focus areas and extensive technical diligence site visits; and
• Complex negotiation and execution of two separate transactions contemporaneously within a compressed timeframe

Result

The process met Pentair’s requirements for exit despite there being no logical single buyer for all of WIG:

• The WIG DB&M business was sold to Monadelphous Limited (ASX:MND) augmenting existing operations and providing diversification away from resources; and
• The WIG Ops business was sold to Trility Group, providing additional customers and contracts within Trility’s core operations competencies
• The vast majority of WIG employees continued in their positions and benefited from the support of larger organisations committed to growth in the water infrastructure industry