SAN FRANCISCO — Gryphon Investors acquired Southern HVAC from MSouth Equity Partners.

Southern HVAC and Right Time will be owned by NAEHS (North American Essential Home Services), but will continue to operate independently, retaining their existing brand names and current management teams, while leveraging the combined scale and scope of the two businesses. As part of the transaction, Ian McKeen has become CEO of NAEHS. McKeen, a dual U.S. and Canadian citizen, has spent more than 25 years in the home services industry and previously served as president and chief operating officer of Service Experts. 

“The holding company structure will allow each company to share in best practices and benefit from scale advantages, while maintaining the separate strategies and management teams that have driven their success to date,” said McKeen. “I look forward to working with Southern HVAC CEO Bryan Benak and Right Time CEO Craig Goettler to continue building two of the best home services businesses in North America.”

“Residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services remains a highly fragmented industry, with demand growth being driven as consumers spend more time in their homes,” said Benak. “We aim to expand our position as the leading residential services provider across Texas, the Southeastern U.S., and Midwestern U.S. with support from Gryphon, Ian, and Right Time.”

“We continue to enjoy our partnership with Gryphon and are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with the Southern HVAC management team,” said Goettler.

“The acquisition of Southern HVAC represents an excellent strategic fit for Gryphon’s North American residential services strategy and is highly complementary to Right Time, which has performed ahead of expectations since our investment this past December,” said Alex Earls, Gryphon deal partner, and Jeff Balagna, Gryphon operating partner. “Common ownership of both of these companies by NAEHS should create significant value for stakeholders of both companies, and we are excited as part of this investment to support the organic and acquisition strategies of Southern HVAC and Right Time.”

“Bryan Benak and his team at Southern HVAC were critical to the value creation we experienced during our investment and in building one of the largest residential HVAC platforms in the South and Midwest through organic growth and a buy-and-build strategy,” said Charles Stubbs, an MSouth Partner. “We were fortunate to partner with such an outstanding management team, and we look forward to watching their continued success.”

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