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Premier Texas Environmental Services Company Established, Profitable & Positioned for Continued Growth An exceptional opportunity to acquire a highly respected environmental services company serving Texas for more than 20 years. This well-established business has built a strong reputation for delivering critical environmental solutions to a diverse and loyal customer base across government, industrial, and energy sectors. Business Highlights Asking Price: $11.9 MillionAverage Annual Revenue: $8.5 MillionAverage EBITDA: $1.2 MillionPlant & Equipment: $2.9 MillionAccounts Receivable: $1.3 MillionEmployees: 30-35Lease FacilityManagement Team in PlaceSeller Transition Support Available Diverse & Stable Customer Base The company serves an impressive portfolio of clients including: Government entitiesPrivate commercial and industrial companiesOil & gas operatorsPipeline companiesRefineriesStorage terminal facilities Currently 65 Master Service Agreements (MSAs) already in place, providing recurring business opportunities and strong customer retention. O EMR Rating: 0.82 O Member ISN Permits and Licenses: · USDOT · Railroad Commission WHP · TCEQ Permit · EPA Permit Turnkey Operation This is a true turnkey acquisition with experienced management and trained personnel already in place. The company's operational infrastructure, equipment fleet, customer relationships, and proven systems allow for a seamless ownership transition. Significant Growth Opportunities With increasing environmental compliance requirements and continued industrial activity throughout Texas, the business is well-positioned for continued expansion. A new owner can leverage existing customer relationships, MSAs, and market reputation to accelerate growth. Seller Retirement The owner is retiring after building a successful and respected operation over two decades. To ensure a smooth transition, the seller is committed to providing training, introductions, and ongoing support during the transition period. Ideal Acquisition This opportunity is well-suited for: Strategic buyers seeking expansion Environmental service companies pursuing market share growthPrivate equity groups seeking a stable cash-flowing platform investmentEntrepreneurs seeking a proven business with experienced management in place Qualified buyers will be provided additional information upon execution of a Confidentiality Agreement (NDA).
Why we like it
- Earnings quality is supported by 65 active Master Service Agreements across government, refinery, pipeline, and oil and gas accounts, which means the revenue is recurring and contracted rather than dependent on chasing new bids each quarter. Customer concentration still needs verification, but a portfolio of 65 MSAs across multiple sectors is a far healthier base than a handful of relationships.
- The moat here is regulatory, not marketing. The business holds USDOT authority, a Railroad Commission WHP, a TCEQ permit, and an EPA permit, and those credentials take years and serious compliance discipline to assemble. A new competitor cannot simply spin up and underbid this company without first clearing the same permitting gauntlet.
- Demand is genuinely non-discretionary. Refineries, pipelines, and storage terminals must handle environmental compliance regardless of the macro cycle, and tightening environmental regulation in Texas only increases the mandatory spend. This is the kind of boring, must-do work that survives downturns intact.
- This is a true platform for a strategic or PE buyer, with a management team in place, an EMR of 0.82 signaling a strong safety record, and ISN membership that matters for winning industrial contracts. A buyer with adjacent environmental or industrial services assets could bolt this on and immediately leverage the permit stack and MSA base across a wider footprint.
How to improve it
- Pull a full customer revenue breakdown and convert the 65 MSAs into a tiered pricing and renewal review. Many long-tenured service firms underprice legacy accounts, so a disciplined rate increase on the lowest-margin MSAs in the first 90 days can drop straight to EBITDA with minimal churn risk.
- Build a true sales engine. A 20-year-old company that grew on reputation almost certainly has no dedicated outbound sales function, so hiring one or two account managers to systematically expand wallet share with existing refinery and pipeline clients is the fastest path to organic growth.
- Audit equipment utilization across the $2.9 million plant and equipment base. Idle or underutilized assets either get put to work on more billable hours or get sold to free up cash, and tightening fleet scheduling typically improves margin without new capex.
- Cross-sell the permit stack. With USDOT, Railroad Commission, TCEQ, and EPA credentials already in hand, map out adjacent compliance services the company is legally able to offer but is not currently selling, and pitch them into the existing MSA base.
- Formalize the management transition before close. Since the owner is retiring, lock in key managers with retention agreements and document tribal knowledge so the business does not lose institutional capability when the founder walks out the door.
- Pursue a tuck-in acquisition strategy using this as a platform. The Texas environmental services market is fragmented with many sub-scale operators, and a buyer can acquire smaller permit-holding shops at single-digit multiples and consolidate them under this brand and back office.
- Implement job-level margin reporting. Many industrial services firms run on blended P&L visibility, so installing per-MSA and per-job profitability tracking will quickly reveal which contracts to renegotiate, which to expand, and which to walk away from.
Diligence notes
- Scrutinize the $1.2 million cash flow figure and whether it is true normalized EBITDA or owner-defined SDE. At a 9.92x ask the entire deal hinges on this number, so demand audited or reviewed financials, an add-back schedule, and three years of tax returns before taking the cash flow at face value.
- Map customer concentration across the 65 MSAs and the named sectors. If oil and gas operators or a single refinery account for an outsized share of revenue, the earnings are more cyclical and fragile than the diversified-customer narrative suggests, which materially changes the price you should pay.
- Verify the transferability of every permit and license. USDOT, Railroad Commission WHP, TCEQ, and EPA credentials are the core moat, so confirm whether they transfer with a stock sale, require re-application in an asset sale, or carry any open violations or compliance liabilities.
- Assess environmental and legal liability exposure. A company that handles waste for refineries and pipelines carries real long-tail risk, so review historical spills, regulatory actions, pending litigation, and insurance coverage, and structure indemnities or escrows around any latent contamination claims.
- Confirm the durability of the management team post-retirement. The seller built this over 20 years and the value rests on the team staying, so interview key managers, understand compensation and tenure, and quantify how much institutional knowledge leaves with the owner.
- Examine the lease and equipment condition. The facility is leased rather than owned, so review remaining term, renewal options, and rent escalation, and inspect the $2.9 million equipment fleet for deferred maintenance or imminent replacement capex that could erode the cash flow you are paying nearly 10x for.