By Pat Maio Staff Reporter
Two Los Angeles investors are establishing Wiley Energy Services through the purchase of a water-management business serving energy and exploration companies in oil-rich western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
Oil field services entrepreneur Nicholas Atkins and real estate investor Rudy Concha are the principal financial backers of privately held Jourdanton, Texas-based Wiley Energy Services, which they say they expect to generate roughly $26 million in annual revenue in its first year.
This isn’t the first time Atkins has dipped his toes into water services in the energy industry. He founded and developed numerous businesses in the oil and gas industry, including WestWater Energy, a leader in technology for oil and gas wastewater disposal in the hydraulic fracturing process, or fracking.
Fracking is an energy well stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of fluid to create cracks in the deep-rock formations through which natural gas, oil and brine will flow more freely.
In 2014 Atkins sold that business to Oilfield Water Logistics, owned by billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Terms of the deal were undisclosed at the time.
Now Atkins wants to rebuild a similar company focused on water services management in the fracking field.
Joining Atkins in this latest startup is Concha, who is founder and chairman of Los Angeles-based Security Real Estate Brokerage Inc. with a portfolio valued at more than $60 million in land, apartments, industrial buildings, commercial and residential properties.
The Western Energy acquisition of a water-management business in Texas includes two units of Wiley Lease Co. The units sold to Western Energy include W. Disposal Service and Gaydos Vac Services, subsidiaries that handle water hauling and saltwater disposal. Saltwater disposal wells manage the saltwater, also referred to as oilfield brine, and are used to inject water into rock formations to get at energy hidden beneath the earth’s crust.
In an interview, Atkins said the newly created company assumed the name of Wiley because it’s a familiar name in the energy industry.
The deal also covers a fleet of 50 vacuum trailers, 150 tanks and four saltwater disposal operations in Atascosa County, Texas. Frac tanks are used to store wastewater from an oil and gas fracking operation while the vacuum tankers are hooked up to a tractor and used to haul away wastes from an exploration site.
Atkins said he envisions Wiley Energy reaching a “couple hundred million dollars” in annual revenue over the next year as he pursues additional acquisitions.
The plan is to take the company public after it reaches $500 million in revenue, he said.
Leib Orlanski, a partner in the mergers and acquisitions group in the L.A. office of law firm K&L Gates, represented Wiley Energy Services. David Strolle Jr., a partner with Granstaff Gaedke & Edgmon in San Antonio, Texas, represented the Wiley Lease Co. in the deal.
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OPENGATE BUYS ITALIAN MANUFACTURER
Century City private equity firm OpenGate Capital has completed the acquisition of AICO, an Italian manufacturer of residential stoves, fireplaces, boilers and coolers from Ambienta, a European private equity firm.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
AICO offers two brands, Ravelli and Elledi.
Have a deal tip? Pat Maio can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8329.
