(Reuters) -Engineering and maintenance services provider Legence is targeting a valuation of up to $2.95 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, it said on Tuesday, as the new listings market kicks back into action after the seasonal summer slowdown.
San Jose, California-based Legence, a Blackstone portfolio company, is seeking up to $754 million by offering 26 million shares priced between $25 and $29 apiece.
With the IPO market buzzing after blowout debuts of high-profile firms, Blackstone is
preparing more companies to go public than any other time since the record IPO year of 2021.
The world's largest alternative asset manager bought Legence, then called Therma Holdings, from private equity firm Gemspring Capital in 2020.
Over 100 years old, Legence designs and installs systems such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, as well as those boosting energy efficiency and sustainability in buildings.
Under Blackstone's stewardship, Legence has acquired several smaller rivals including A.O. Reed, OCI Associates, and P2S.
DATA CENTER BOOM
Legence, which had $2.8 billion of backlog and awarded contracts as of June 30, focuses on high-growth sectors that have technically demanding buildings, including data centers and life sciences.
Soaring investment in data centers as technology companies build infrastructure needed to train and run artificial intelligence models has boosted firms like Legence.
Nearly 40% of Legence's backlog and awarded contracts for projects in new buildings were data centers as of 2024.
Goldman Sachs and Jefferies are the lead underwriters on the IPO. Legence will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “LGN.”
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil and Ateev Bhandari in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
