DEAL OF THE YEAR – $1 BILLION+
BUYER: THE HOME DEPOT, INC.
SELLER: SRS DISTRIBUTION, INC.
DEAL TEAM: Goldman Sachs; Jefferies; Latham & Watkins; Leonard Green & Partners, L.P.
In June 2024, SRS Distribution, Inc. was sold to The Home Depot, Inc. in an all-cash transaction for an enterprise value of $18.25 billion, which was the fourth largest US private equity exit ever according to Pitchbook. At the time Leonard Green & Partners, L.P. (LGP) invested in 2018, SRS was the third largest roofing products distributor in the United States, serving both the residential and commercial end markets. LGP, over the course of its investment period, encouraged and provided strategic assistance to SRS to expand its distribution footprint into new adjacencies in the pool and landscape markets where SRS previously had minimal presence, given LGP’s past investment experience in these sectors. At the time of exit, SRS had scaled to the #2 player in each of the roofing, pool and landscape distribution markets, which made SRS an attractive target as Home Depot sought to enter the professional services distribution space. During LGP’s investment period, SRS opened 165+ greenfield locations and executed 75+ add-on transactions. SRS also continued to grow its position as a market leader throughout LGP’s investment through various organic initiatives, investments in customer facing technology, and an entrepreneurial approach of empowering branch-level leadership. The sale transaction was executed expeditiously, particularly given the scale and public nature of the strategic buyer, with engaged discussions in early 2024, signed by March 2024, and closed in June 2024. Given the strong achievements, growth and culture of broad-based employee equity participation at SRS, the employees of SRS collectively realized approximately $3.5 billion of gross cash proceeds over the course of LGP’s ownership period.
