HIG extends government footprint with WBB acquisition

Private equity firm H.I.G. Capital has acquired defense consulting services provider Whitney, Bradley & Brown to further extend the investment group's government market footprint.

Terms of the transaction were undisclosed. The deal sees former WBB Chief Operating Officer Robert Olsen get promoted to CEO and succeed the retiring Bill McMullen, the Reston, Va.-based contractor said Tuesday.

This is H.I.G.'s second major acquisition in the government market this year as the firm in August closed its $283 million acquisition of NCI Inc., another Reston-headquartered government IT and professional services company.

NCI CEO Paul Dillahay then told Washington Technology in October that H.I.G. views the contractor as a "platform from which they want to go and make more" acquisitions.

Founded in 1981, WBB has 500 employees out of seven offices located near their federal agency customers. The company provides program management and consulting services to Defense Department agencies and others in the national security community.

H.I.G's deal for WBB is an exit for Lake Capital, which purchased the contractor in 2012 and then merged it with portfolio company Netstar-1 to create a $130 million-revenue business.

The investment bank KippsDeSanto served as an advisor to WBB.

Miami-headquartered H.I.G. was founded in 1993 and has nearly $24 billion in equity capital under management. Its almost 100 portfolio companies record nearly $30 billion in sales per year.