The Workforce Group, LLC Has Been Acquired by The Lemoine Company, LLC

11.05.2021

HOUSTON, TEXAS (May 11, 2021) – Statesman Corporate Finance, LLC (“Statesman”) is pleased to announce that The Workforce Group, LLC (“Workforce Group”), has been acquired by The Lemoine Company, LLC (“Lemoine”), a portfolio company of Bernhard Capital Partners (“Bernhard”). Statesman served as the financial advisor to The Workforce Group on the transaction, which closed April 30, 2021.

This transaction is part of Lemoine’s strategy to strengthen its position as a global leader in the emergency preparedness, disaster recovery, and resilience industries.

Workforce Group, headquartered in Baton Rouge, was founded in 2013 by Bart Farmer and Robby Robinson, leaders in the disaster recovery industry since Hurricane Katrina. Workforce Group has significant experience with long-term recovery HUD CDBG-DR and FEMA funded recovery projects totaling over $15 billion. These include disciplines such as full-service grant management, rapid application development, applicant intake, damage assessments, environmental reviews, construction inspections, applicant appeals, compliance and monitoring, data management, call centers, and staff augmentation. Beginning with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the leaders of Workforce Group have been actively involved in assisting state and local governments for hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, Dolly, Isaac, Sandy, Matthew, Harvey, and Irma.
“This is an important and exciting expansion, further enabling us to provide a full suite of emergency preparedness and disaster recovery services that create stronger, more resilient communities around the world,” said Lemoine CEO Lenny Lemoine. “Workforce Group’s approach of bringing cutting edge technology to the disaster recovery environment enables governments and citizens to recover quicker and more efficiently. The diversity of talent and services within Workforce Group, combined with Lemoine’s decades of experience in construction and disaster recovery, are uniquely poised to deliver value to the customers and communities we both support.”
“When we founded Workforce Group, we wanted to combine our expert and devoted talent with innovative technology and be viewed as the worldwide leader in recovery operations,” said Workforce Group founding partner Bart Farmer. “We’ve had tremendous success because this approach has benefitted our entrusted clients and helped them through all phases of recovery from some of our country’s most devastating and costly disasters. This partnership with Lemoine, a firm that we’ve always had much respect for, will provide even greater levels of integrated support and services to the clients we serve.” 
The two companies have a combined workforce of over 500 employees located throughout the U.S. Workforce Group’s leadership team will remain in place and will work collaboratively with Lemoine to serve its customers and identify additional growth opportunities.

About the other transaction participants

Statesman Corporate Finance, LLC (Houston & Austin, TX) is the FINRA-licensed broker dealer affiliate of Statesman Business Advisors, LLC. With offices in Houston and Austin, Texas, Statesman is a leading middle-market investment banking firm providing merger and acquisition, capital formation, valuation, and other general corporate financial advisory services to middle-market companies. The Statesman team advising on this engagement was Principal Will Jaco, Director Mark Vance, Vice President Peter Chiu, and Analyst Anthony Hernandez.

The Lemoine Company, LLC (Lafayette, LA), a Louisiana-based ENR Top-400 Contractor with over 45 years of experience across the Southern United States, has a long-standing, healthy core practice in commercial construction that has become a foundation for setting and executing strategic goals for expansion to adjacent and complementary business lines. Lemoine Disaster Recovery, a subsidiary of The Lemoine Company, LLC, has built a strong foundation supporting governmental entities with disaster recovery, including short-term and long-term recovery programs funded by FEMA and HUD. They have provided exceptional service in repairing and reconstructing thousands of homes across the southeast U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Bernhard Capital Partners (Baton Rouge, LA) is a service and infrastructure-focused private equity management firm established in 2013 by Jim Bernhard, Jeff Jenkins and a team of experienced private-equity professionals. Bernhard seeks to create sustainable value by leveraging its experience in acquiring, operating and growing services and infrastructure businesses. Chris Dillon and Bryan Poppler led the transaction on behalf of Bernhard.

Kean Miller LLP (Houston, TX) served as the legal advisor to The Workforce Group and Butler Snow LLP (Baton Rouge, LA) served as the legal advisor to Lemoine and Bernhard Capital in the transaction.

Postlethwaite & Netterville (Baton Rouge, LA) served as the tax advisor to The Workforce Group.

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