Hudson Hill closes CV for InXpress; Warburg Pincus, Berkshire Partners to sell Consolidated Precision Products to GE Aerospace for $11.75bn

Good morning dealmakers, it’s Obey Martin Manayiti here with the US edition of the Wire from the New York newsroom.

We’ll start with our exclusive on Hudson Hill Capital’s single-asset continuation vehicle for InXpress, an international and domestic parcel and freight services provider based in Sandy, Utah. Stay tuned for details on the CV below, including insights from Hudson Hill founder and managing partner Eric Rosen. He tells us what the firm achieved with InXpress ahead of the CV, the opportunities that drove that growth and what’s next for the company.

Next, I’ll highlight some fresh deal news. Warburg Pincus and Berkshire Partners have agreed to sell Consolidated Precision Products to GE Aerospace for $11.75 billion. I’ll also revisit our recent aerospace and defense coverage as well as run through some of Warburg’s exits this year.

To finish, Altaline Capital Management has completed a growth investment in Risk & Regulatory Consulting, a Farmington, Connecticut-based provider of actuarial, financial, IT and compliance support services to US insurance regulators.

Freight services

Hudson Hill Capital has closed a single asset continuation vehicle for InXpress, an international and domestic parcel and freight services provider based in Sandy, Utah, and PE Hub was the first to report.

Barings Capital Management and Ardlussa Capital are the anchor investor group in the CV, with the participation of Hudson Hill and InXpress company management, which both rolled the entirety of their proceeds into the transaction.

Hudson Hill acquired a controlling stake in InXpress in 2020 and made a more than 3x return before the CV. “Some of the investors wanted a strong outcome in a shorter period, and we were able to give them that – a return of more than 3x,” Eric Rosen, Hudson Hill founder and managing partner, told PE Hub. “Others, including Barings, wanted to continue with the company. We hired Evercore to run the process, which was broad and competitive, and brought Ardlussa into the transaction.”

Founded in 1999 in the UK, InXpress connects small and mid-sized businesses to parcel and freight carriers through a franchise network that spans 14 countries, 450 franchises and more than 46,000 customers, reselling capacity from DHL, UPS, FedEx and over 100 freight carriers on its proprietary WebShip platform, according to Rosen.

Pent-up consumer demand during the covid-19 pandemic boosted InXpress’ business, Rosen said.

“It pulled an enormous number of small and mid-sized businesses into e-commerce almost overnight, which meant they suddenly had to ship – and transportation and logistics is not typically their core focus,” Rosen said. “Meanwhile, carrier capacity tightened, and the environment grew more volatile amid pricing fluctuations, making access and expertise genuinely valuable. That is precisely the problem InXpress was built to solve.”

Looking forward, Rosen said InXpress has an “enormous” opportunity for growth, underpinned by the strong economic performance.

InXpress serves small and medium-sized companies, and there are tens of thousands of those companies in the US and across the world. “We have around 46,000 customers today, which is a very small percentage of the total addressable market, which is enormous. We have barely scratched the surface,” Rosen said.

It’s an exit

Warburg Pincus and Berkshire Partners have agreed to sell Consolidated Precision Products to GE Aerospace for $11.75 billion, exiting an investment the two private equity firms have held jointly.

CPP, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, manufactures highly engineered castings and sub-assemblies for the commercial aerospace and defense markets. Founded in 1991, the company produces super alloy, titanium, aluminum, magnesium and steel castings for commercial and military aircraft, weapon systems, business jets, helicopters and industrial gas turbines.

The purchase price will be financed with $7 billion in cash and the balance in new debt. The deal values CPP at roughly 18 times expected 2027 EBITDA including anticipated synergies, or 26 times without them, and is expected to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share and free cash flow in its first year.

“CPP has been transformed into a leading precision casting company in the industry, with significant investments in its operations, technology, quality systems and talent,” said Dan Zamlong, managing director at Warburg, in a press statement.

At a time when exits are elusive, Warburg Pincus has notched a string of exits this year. Some of the recent ones include:

• McGill and Partners, an independent specialty reinsurance broker headquartered in London, which is set to be acquired by EQT for $2 billion.
• In August, Warburg agreed to exit Certified Group, a provider of a suite of services including core microbiology and chemistry testing services, contract research, certification and audit services, and regulatory consulting. Mérieux NutriSciences is the buyer, and the deal is expected to close in last quarter of this year.
• In July, Kayne Anderson and Warburg agreed to sell WildFire Energy, a Houston-based energy company, to Magnolia Oil & Gas Corporation for about $4.06 billion. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
• In June, Warburg and its co-investors, agreed to partially exit Ensemble, a provider of end-to-end revenue cycle managed services for healthcare organizations, to
  Earlier this year, Permira and Warburg agreed to sell London-based Evelyn Partners to NatWest at an enterprise value of £2.7 billion ($3.7 billion; €3.1 billion).

ICYMI

Let’s stay with the aerospace and defense segment a while longer. PE Hub recently highlighted five reasons private equity is betting big on US Naval investments. These include the need to clear a large manufacturing backlog and modernize the Navy fleet; the need to tap into AI and other tech advances; a reliable and deep-pocketed customer; and increased demand for more assets as geopolitical tensions flare.

Last year, PE Hub explored themes that made 2025 a record-breaking year for private equity deals in the sector. Pent-up demand for new aerospace equipment contributed to the record investments in this sector.

Compliance support

Altaline Capital Management has completed a growth investment in Risk & Regulatory Consulting, a Farmington, Connecticut-based independent provider of actuarial, financial/IT and compliance support services to US insurance regulators.

Founded in 1988, RRC has worked with state insurance departments for nearly 40 years, serving 44 states and jurisdictions with a team of about 160 professionals. Its work spans financial and IT examinations, market conduct examinations, actuarial services, insolvency and receivership support, market studies and investment analysis.

RRC’s leadership and service offering are unchanged following the deal.

“As part of our investment research work, we found the public sector actuarial solutions market to be compelling and RRC, in particular, to have all the attributes we look for here at Altaline,” said Sebastian O’Neill, principal at Altaline, in a statement.

That’s it from me this morning. Nina Lindholm will cover for Craig McGlashan on the Europe Wire tomorrow, while Rafael Canton will write Wednesday’s US Wire.

Cheers,
Obey