May 1, 2013
Southlake, TX- Prophet Equity (“Prophet”) announces today that it has appointed Doug Chapple as President and Chief Operating Officer of two of its portfolio companies, Francis Drilling Fluids and HLI Energy Services. “Having worked with Doug to successfully deliver tremendous value to investors in prior portfolio companies, I am thrilled to reunite again at Prophet to build value once again through operational improvements, organic and acquisitive growth at two of our most strategically positioned platforms”, commented Ross Gatlin, Managing Partner of Prophet.
Doug Chapple is leaving the President role of The Walker Group, a manufacturer of stainless steel and aluminum tanks and vessels where he helped lead the turnaround, transformation and build up of a smaller, underperforming initial platform company into a much larger, more profitable and more diversified market leader. Mr. Chapple has decades of operational expertise leading, building and managing both public and privately owned companies. He has been very successful in spearheading add-on acquisitions and their operational integration into existing companies while also maintaining significant organic growth. “Having successfully optimized operations and built best in class customer service oriented businesses with Ross as a private equity owner in the past, I am very confident that our common approach to diagnosing and building value will be very powerful at these strategic, very well positioned platforms in one of the most exciting industry spaces in America.”
Mr. Gatlin spoke about Prophet’s continuing focus in and around energy services through these and other portfolio companies, “Bringing proven private equity value creation capability like Doug’s into the veteran teams’ of two of our most significant platforms focused on shale related energy services through our expanding capacity and network of over 20 storage, transloading, distribution and disposal facilities across the country highlights our continuing focus on building and deploying the very best service capabilities for our long term, high quality international, national, regional and local customers.” Mr. Chapple complements a very impressive team of veteran senior executives, managers and team members dedicated to a common vision of being recognized by our customers as the best in Americas in providing service. His recruitment also an example of our continuing principle of attracting the most qualified team members and with his and the veteran executive management team’s assistance we will continue to aggressively invest in expanding national network. Regarding the team, Mr. Chapple said, “It is a distinct pleasure to join such an experienced, capable team of industry veterans in implementing an exciting, visionary growth and expansion plan in one of the most vital and growing industries in America.”
About Francis Drilling Fluids
Founded in 1977, Francis Drilling Fluids is the largest fracturing materials logistics company in the U.S. Additional service lines include the rental of certain oilfield equipment such as tanks and hoses as well as the provision of cleaning services. Headquartered in Crowley, Louisiana with additional facilities servicing onshore providers in that state as well as in Texas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming, FDF provides services to the Haynesville Shale (East Texas and Louisiana), Woodford Shale (Oklahoma), Eagle Ford Shale (South Texas), Midcontinent/ Niobrara Shale (Utah/ Colorado/ Wyoming) as well as the Permian Basin (West Texas). FDF also provides Gulf of Mexico deepwater offshore services through its facility in Fourchon, Louisiana, and Gulf of Mexico shelf and inland water services through its facilities in Cameron and Berwick, Louisiana. www.fdfltd.com
About HLI Energy
HLI Energy Services is an oilfield services company headquartered in Cleburne, Texas that focuses on providing solids control logistics and transportation services for E&P customers. HLI currently operates in the Barnett Shale providing customers disposal & logistics support around our 1,000 acres of commercially permitted land farms. www.hlienergy.com
About Prophet Equity LP
Prophet Equity LP is a private equity firm that uses proven, data-driven analytical techniques coupled with over 100 years of investment and management experience to invest in, unlock and realize future value today. Partnering with owners and management teams, Prophet Equity’s team utilizes a toolkit that is Fortune 500 tested and private equity proven to diagnose and drive dramatic value creation. Portfolio company management teams are highly motivated with clear, uncapped incentives based on realized business performance.
Over the last decade alone, Prophet Equity’s Principals have invested in and managed over $2B of value over companies with over $4 billion in revenue. Our control equity investments focus on lower and middle market companies with strategically strong businesses with significant value creation potential, such as those found in partnerships, corporate carve-outs, divestitures and non-strategic businesses of larger companies. Representative business situations include special situations, succession planning, recapitalizations, reorganizations, turnarounds, acquisitions, mergers and bankruptcies. For more information on Prophet Equity or to discuss seeing future value in your situation today, please contact us at +1.817.898.1500 or please visit www.prophetequity.com .