Optimum Energy Co., a Bernhard Capital Partners portfolio company, has completed its acquisition of Hussung Mechanical Contractors and HMC Service Company (HMC), Bernhard announced October 8. Optimum first announced the deal on August 12. HMC is a fourth-generation, family-owned mechanical contractor and service company that has served customers in Kentucky and Indiana since 1966, and it will keep operating under its own name as part of the Optimum Energy group.
The asset.
HMC designs, installs and services HVAC, plumbing, medical gas and piping systems for healthcare, higher education, manufacturing and mission-critical facilities, along with other commercial and industrial customers. Its website lists Louisville, Kentucky offices for both Hussung Mechanical and HMC Service Company. Optimum's August announcement described HMC as serving healthcare systems, universities, manufacturers, data centers and mission-critical facilities across the Mid-South.
CEO David C. Hussung said his grandfather and great-uncle started the company on a promise to do quality work, act with integrity and take care of the customer, and that the partnership gives HMC a platform to grow faster without changing that foundation. President Corey Cousino said joining Optimum gives the team the resources and reach to take on more complex work.
The platform.
Seattle-based Optimum Energy describes itself as an integrated energy-as-a-service (EaaS) platform for healthcare, higher education and advanced manufacturing facilities. Its services run from engineering, design and construction through central utility plant development and modernization, mechanical and energy systems, and ongoing operations, maintenance and asset management. It draws on 20 years of central plant performance data, proprietary AI and a Remote Services team that monitors facility systems continuously, and its EaaS model lets customers pay for that work through off-balance-sheet financing structures with no upfront capital. Lisa Roy is CEO and president.
Bernhard Capital Partners is a Baton Rouge-based private markets firm with more than $6.5 billion of assets under management that builds infrastructure services and asset platforms. Managing Director Jonathan de Lauréal called the closing an important milestone for the Optimum platform.
Adding a self-perform mechanical arm.
Optimum said HMC's mechanical contracting and field service expertise expands its in-house execution capability and its ability to self-perform across every phase of the infrastructure lifecycle. For an EaaS provider that finances and runs central plants, owning the contractor that installs and services the equipment keeps that work inside the platform. HMC's hospital, university and plant customers are the same institutional end markets Optimum already serves.
Sponsor-backed mechanical platforms have been buying long-tenured institutional contractors in the region, including State Group's acquisition of Evansville's MelKay in the Tri-State and Foundral's purchase of Fort Wayne's A. Hattersley & Sons. Commercial service platforms such as Huron Capital's Exigent Group continue to add mechanical contractors across the Midwest.
What it means.
Energy and infrastructure investors are now buying commercial mechanical contractors alongside traditional MEP roll-ups. For healthcare, university and industrial mechanical contractors in Kentucky, Indiana and the Mid-South, Optimum is a buyer that keeps the acquired name and pairs the contractor with engineering, financing and plant operations work.
Own a commercial mechanical contractor with institutional customers?
Hospital, university and plant relationships draw interest from MEP roll-ups, infrastructure investors and energy platforms, and each values the business differently. Schryver & Co. helps mechanical contractors with roughly $5 million to $100 million of revenue sort out which of those buyers fits. Let's compare notes: will@schryverco.com.
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