Lincoln Road’s founder Jeff Magny details Brothers National partial exit

Lincoln Road Global Management has drawn on a founder-led focused M&A model and a slew of organic growth strategies to scale Brothers National, a Manassas, Virginia-based asphalt, concrete and paving company that it co-owned with Trivest Partners.

Lincoln Road, headquartered in Miami, this week partially exited the company in a deal where Brothers National merged with Pavement Partners, a Bristow, Virginia-based portfolio company of Shoreline Equity Partners, to form Pave America, a pavement service company.

Pave America, which will be under the dual control of Shoreline Equity Partners and Trivest Partners, provides maintenance work such as repairs, milling, sealcoating and striping services to commercial, municipal, industrial and utility customers, among others. Lincoln Road will retain a minority stake.

PE Hub caught up with Jeff Magny, Lincoln Road’s founder and managing partner, to discuss the partial exit.

“We have accomplished our plan,” said Magny, as he set out details about the early exit. The firm initially invested in Brothers National in December 2020.

Lincoln Road implemented a series of organic growth initiatives that are repeatable, Magny said. These strategies include strengthening the marketing department as well as the financial systems and controls at Brothers National.

As a result, the company managed to complete 13 deals with founder-led companies. These acquisitions helped Brothers National to add complementary services to its operations as well as increasing its geographic footprint.

The Lincoln Road founder described his firm as an early mover in the paving and maintenance sector. “This space didn’t see a lot of significant capital and we thought that was particularly attractive,” he said.

Other factors that helped the company to create value within a short space of time, according to Magny, is that it relied on a recurring consumer base in a fragmented sector, a repeatable operational model, and partnering with very talented management team that assisted in unlocking the next stage of growth.