Ardurra Group, Inc. Announces New Ownership Structure in Partnership with Management and Littlejohn & Co.
MIAMI, FL-- February 2, 2023 -- Ardurra Group, Inc. (“Ardurra” or the “Company”), a leading provider of multidisciplinary engineering and design services to water, transportation and aviation end-markets, today announced the firm’s management and employees have partnered with Littlejohn & Co. LLC (“Littlejohn”), a private investment firm, to acquire Ardurra. The Company’s management team and employees will continue to own a significant portion of the business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Ardurra Group provides highly-complex engineering and design services for water, transportation and aviation end markets across the Southeast, Central, Southwest and Northwest United States. Ardurra is ranked 114th on ENR’s 2022 Top 500 Design Firms, 4th on Zweig’s Hot Firm List and 24th on Zweig’s Best Firms to Work for List.

“Littlejohn has an impressive track record of building enduring value for its portfolio companies and we are excited to partner with them as our Company enters this new chapter. Littlejohn shares Ardurra’s values and commitment to providing world-class service, and this partnership will enable us to accelerate growth while we continue to innovate as one of the country’s leading engineering and design firms,” said Ernesto Aguilar, Ardurra’s CEO.

"RTC has been an outstanding partner for our organization. They have supported our vision of growing a national professional services firm by committing to our values of being employee-centric, client focused, and results driven. RTC’s financial and strategic support has allowed us to establish a strong foundation for continued industry leading growth, and our entire organization is appreciative of their unwavering trust and support over the last five years. Our employees and shareholders look forward to this next phase in our continued growth and drive to provide the highest level of client service to all our clients,” Mr. Aguilar added.

Michael Kaplan, a Managing Director at Littlejohn, commented, “Ardurra has developed a well-earned reputation as an industry leader with a track record of above-market growth that plays a vital role in supporting its clients, which include municipal and state governments. We believe Ardurra is well positioned as investments in complex infrastructure – particularly focused around drinking water, water treatment and transportation – continue to accelerate. Ardurra has proven its ability to attract and retain the best talent in the industry, and we are thrilled to partner with this seasoned, entrepreneurial team to grow the business through geographic expansion, new capability development and strategic M&A.”

“RTC is incredibly proud of and grateful to Ernesto and the entire Ardurra team for the outstanding work they have done in building this platform. In addition to executing on an ambitious growth plan, both organic and acquisitive, this team has also managed to build a best-in-class corporate infrastructure and instill a highly-engaged, high performance culture that is truly differentiated,” commented Christopher Lee, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner at RTC. Tony Brindisi, RTC’s other Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner, added: “Our goal in building the Ardurra organization was always to build a market-leading growth platform and to ultimately find a strong partner that was well-positioned to support the organization in achieving its next phase of expansion. We are excited to pass the torch to Littlejohn and look forward to following their success.”
Evercore Group, LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor and Greenberg Traurig, LLP acted as legal advisor to Ardurra.

About Ardurra Group, Inc.:
Ardurra provides highly complex engineering and design services for various end-markets, including water, transportation and aviation, across the United States. Ardurra’s innovative, technically driven services make a positive impact on the country’s most critical pieces of infrastructure, enabling local communities to provide residents clean water, implement transit and transportation solutions, treat wastewater, and develop sustainable, resilient infrastructure, among many other solutions. Headquartered in Miami, FL, the Company has approximately 1,250 highly skilled employees across 70+ offices. For more information about Ardurra, visit https://ardurra.com/.

About Littlejohn & Co.:
Littlejohn & Co. is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based investment firm focused on private equity and debt investments primarily in middle market companies. With approximately $8.0 billion in regulatory assets under management, the firm seeks to build sustainable success for its portfolio companies through a disciplined approach to engineering change. For more information about Littlejohn, visit www.littlejohnllc.com.

About RTC Partners:
RTC Partners is a private investment firm that specializes in building middle market growth platforms. Together with management partners, RTC builds market leading companies through a combination of acquisitive and organic growth, while establishing highly professionalized corporate infrastructures that are capable of scaling organizations to the next level. Their strategies focus on high-growth niches of professional, business and healthcare services industries. Their team has successfully completed over 60 transactions since 2017. For more information about RTC, visit https://www.rtcpartners.com/