For owners of CP testing and installation firms
The best CP firms.
One company.
Groundbed is building a national cathodic protection company from the firms that set the standard. When a CP testing or installation firm joins, its technical leaders keep running the work, and its finance, safety and operator qualification records move to one shared program.
- Size
- $500K to $10MEBITDA a year
- Where
- Anywherein the United States
- The work
- CP testing or installationor both
Your technicians.
Your operator approvals.
Your name.
Each one is settled with you before closing: your technicians and their OQ records, your approved-vendor listings with each operator, and the name on your trucks and invoices. See how in the questions owners ask.
The Groundbed standard
Your technicians take the readings. We run the paperwork.
We work from a written integration playbook, built on add-on acquisitions in another services business. Your firm’s 100-day plan is written from it, with you.
- Customers who come back every year for required surveys.
- Technicians qualified under each operator’s OQ plan.
- AMPP-certified people leading the technical work.
- A safety record that operators approve.
- Books, billing, collections and payroll move to one finance team in the first year. Your office manager stays the person your customers call.
- Operator qualification records, drug and alcohol testing paperwork and the safety programs operators audit, kept current in one place.
- Bids, pricing and master service agreements, including the insurance limits large operators ask for.
- Software that turns survey readings into the reports your customers file, chosen with your crew chiefs.
- Trucks, rectifier stock, interrupters and test equipment the 100-day plan calls for, paid for with capital raised alongside each partnership.
- AMPP certification for technicians, from CP1 tester to CP4 specialist.
- A bench of experienced operators and finance executives from our network, on call to you and your managers after closing.
Questions owners ask
Who is paying for this?
For each purchase, Worthings Court Capital arranges a bank loan and raises equity from a small group of capital partners for that deal. Each of those partners has chosen your company by name. You meet them after our review and before closing. If you have been approached by private equity before, ask us the same questions you asked them.
How would I be paid?
The price is paid mostly in cash at closing, from the bank loan and the equity raised for the deal. Part can come later, as a note (the company owes you the balance and pays it over a set number of years) or as a payment tied to results. If you want to, you can also take part of the price as a share of the larger company. The mix is written into the letter of intent.
Do I have to stay, and for how long?
We ask the owner to stay for a transition period. Its length, your title and your pay are written into the letter of intent. Part of that period goes to choosing and training the person who runs the company after you.
What happens to my technicians?
We keep your technicians and office staff in their roles, with their OQ records carried over. Any change to pay, benefits or titles is agreed with you before closing.
Will my customers or employees find out?
Not from us. We sign a confidentiality agreement before you send anything, and we do not contact your customers, employees, suppliers or bank without your permission. Before closing, we agree with you when and how each group is told.
What happens to the name?
How the decision is made goes into the letter of intent, and the decision itself is made with you before closing. We look at what your operator contracts and approved-vendor listings are held under, what your trucks and invoices say, and what a change would cost you in re-registering with operators’ vendor and safety prequalification systems.
What is my company worth?
Mostly it depends on how much steady profit the company makes after paying everyone, including a fair salary for you, and on how much of the work repeats each year. The letter of intent states the price and how we got to it.
Why sell to Groundbed rather than a larger corrosion or pipeline services company?
A larger company usually folds a firm it buys into one of its divisions. At Groundbed, your technical leaders keep running the work, and you can take part of the price as a share of what the company becomes.
Is it a waste of your time to talk if I am not sure I want to sell?
No. A first call commits you to nothing, and if you decide not to sell, that ends it.
How it works
Call
A confidential call of about 30 minutes. You tell us about the company and what you want next.
Review
We sign a confidentiality agreement, then read three years of financials and your largest contracts. If something would make us pass, we say so at this stage.
Letter of intent
A short letter with the price, how it is paid, your role after closing and how the name will be decided. The final purchase agreement is written from it.
Meet the money
Before closing, you meet the lender and the equity partners paying for the purchase.
Close
Closing, then a 100-day plan written with you and your managers.
Choose how you step back
Step back
Sell all of it. You stay for a transition period set in the letter of intent, and you help choose and train the person who runs the company after you.
Stay on
Sell most of it, take part of the price as a share of the larger company, and keep running the technical work with a title and pay agreed before closing.
Bring your family
Family members who work in the business keep their roles, with pay and titles agreed before closing, and one of them can be the successor you train.
The mix of cash at closing, a note, a payment tied to results and a share of the company is written into the letter of intent.
The work we look for
- Annual test station surveys and close-interval surveys
- Rectifier inspection, repair and installation
- Anode and groundbed installation
- AC interference studies and mitigation
- Tank and terminal CP
- DCVG, ACVG and coating inspection
EBITDA is operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Why cathodic protection
Pipeline operators test cathodic protection every calendar year and check rectifiers six times a year. Underground storage tank systems are tested within six months of installation and at least every three years after that.
Since PHMSA’s 2022 gas transmission rule, an onshore operator whose annual readings fall short for a systemic reason has to run close-interval surveys in both directions from the low test station, at about 5-foot spacing, unless that is impractical.
Every technician who does this work must be qualified under the operator’s OQ plan, and many also hold AMPP certifications.
Mileage: PHMSA annual report mileage, 2025. Tanks: EPA UST performance measures, mid-year FY 2026. 49 CFR 192.465(a) and (b) (gas) and 195.573(a) and (c) (hazardous liquids): annual tests at intervals of no more than 15 months, rectifiers six times a year no more than 2½ months apart. 40 CFR 280.31(b): underground storage tanks. 49 CFR 192.465(f): close-interval surveys on onshore gas transmission lines. 49 CFR 192 Subpart N and 195 Subpart G: operator qualification.
For brokers and advisors
Send a teaser, a blind profile or a name. Every introduction gets a reply within one business day.
Where a fee agreement with us applies, it is signed before we see confidential information and paid as written.
The size bar is about $500,000 to $10 million a year of EBITDA, anywhere in the United States.
Use the form below and choose “Advisor or broker,” or write to the address in the footer.
Start with a conversation.
Owners and their advisors are welcome. Every introduction is confidential.
- We read every message and reply within one business day.
- If it looks like a fit, we set up a 30-minute call at a time that suits you.
- Nothing you send goes to a lender or equity partner until you agree to it.
Or write to hello@groundbed.com or call 310-460-1025.
1925 Century Park East, Suite 1700
Los Angeles, CA 90067