H.I.G. Capital has agreed to take MISTRAS Group, a New Jersey company that inspects, tests and monitors industrial equipment, private at an enterprise value of approximately $866 million.
MISTRAS checks industrial equipment for flaws without damaging it, a discipline known as non-destructive testing. Its technicians use ultrasound, radiography and acoustic sensors to find cracks, corrosion and weak welds in refinery vessels, pipelines, storage tanks, power plants, bridges and aircraft parts. Its laboratories also test components for aerospace and defense manufacturers.
The company also sells the tools used in that work. Its Physical Acoustics brand makes sensors that listen for the sound of a crack growing inside pressurized equipment. PCMS, its Plant Condition Management Software, tracks the condition of inspected assets at a plant, while New Century Software manages integrity data for pipeline operators.
Oil and gas producers, refiners and pipeline operators account for the largest share of MISTRAS’ revenue, followed by aerospace and defense, power generation and infrastructure customers. No single customer accounts for more than 10% of revenue.
MISTRAS generated revenue of $724 million and adjusted EBITDA of $91 million in 2025. Based on the $866 million enterprise value, this equates to an EBITDA multiple of 9.5x. For the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, revenue was approximately $739 million and adjusted EBITDA was approximately $95 million, equal to a multiple of 9.1x.
MISTRAS was founded in 1978 as Physical Acoustics by Sotirios Vahaviolos and fellow former researchers from AT&T Bell Laboratories. The company employs approximately 4,800 people, roughly two-thirds of them in the United States, and is headquartered near New York City in Princeton Junction, New Jersey. MISTRAS is led by CEO Natalia Shuman.
“We are pleased to reach this exciting milestone in our company’s journey to become a leading integrated integrity and testing platform,” said Ms. Shuman. “H.I.G.’s confidence in our business validates the work we have done through our Vision2030 transformation to deepen the ways we serve our existing customers, expand into new, high-growth end markets and drive efficiency across our organization.”
Ms. Shuman has been CEO of MISTRAS since January 2025. She previously ran the North American business of Bureau Veritas, the Paris-based testing and certification group, and was a group executive vice president at Eurofins Scientific.
In 2003, Thayer Capital Partners invested in MISTRAS to fund its acquisition of CONAM Inspection, a New Jersey-based non-destructive testing services company. MISTRAS went public in October 2009 with Thayer among the selling shareholders. The company later acquired Onstream Pipeline Inspection, an Alberta-based provider of in-line pipeline inspection services, for approximately $143 million in 2018, and New Century Software, a Colorado-based maker of pipeline data management software, in 2019.
The agreement with H.I.G. includes a 40-day go-shop period that expires at the end of October. If MISTRAS terminates the agreement, it would owe H.I.G. a $27.5 million termination fee, while H.I.G. would owe a reverse termination fee of approximately $49.9 million.
Non-destructive testing is a mid-sized and steadily growing market. MarketsandMarkets estimates global spending on non-destructive testing and inspection at approximately $15 billion in 2025, increasing to $22 billion by 2030, an annual growth rate of 8.3%. North America accounts for approximately $5.2 billion of the market.
Demand in the NDT sector is driven by aging pipelines, refineries and bridges; safety regulations that require inspections on fixed schedules; and aerospace production that requires critical parts to be inspected before they fly. Much of the work is recurring because plants and equipment must be inspected whether or not customers are expanding.
Private equity has been active in the sector. TDR Capital and I Squared Capital won a contested bid for Spain’s Applus Services in April 2024 at approximately €1.65 billion, or about $1.8 billion. GenNx360 Capital Partners partnered with NVI, a Louisiana-based radiography and inspection services company, in February 2026. In August 2026, Stellex Capital became the largest common shareholder of TEAM, a Texas-based provider of inspection and heat-treating services.
The acquisition of MISTRAS gives H.I.G. a scaled platform in industrial inspection, a service plant operators buy on a fixed schedule regardless of the economic cycle.
MISTRAS is H.I.G.’s first investment in non-destructive testing, but it follows two industrial services platforms led by Matt Gullen, a managing director at H.I.G., that serve many of the same refinery and chemical plant customers: refractory and fireproofing contractor JT Thorpe, acquired in 2022 and sold to Truelink Capital in August, and industrial cleaning and maintenance provider USA DeBusk, acquired in May 2024.
“We are very excited by the success achieved by Natalia and the MISTRAS team,” said Mr. Gullen, a managing director at H.I.G. “Through our experience partnering with industrial services businesses, we have developed a deep appreciation for the technical expertise, reliability and customer focus required to support mission-critical operations. MISTRAS has built an impressive platform supported by a highly skilled workforce and longstanding customer relationships, and we look forward to bringing H.I.G.’s experience and resources to support the company’s next phase of growth.”
H.I.G. invests in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of profitable and underperforming manufacturing and service businesses. Its middle-market buyout funds make control investments in companies facing complex situations. The firm is investing through H.I.G. Middle Market LBO Fund IV, which closed in September 2023 with $5.5 billion, plus $450 million of co-investment capital.
H.I.G. manages approximately $75 billion of capital, based on total capital raised, and has invested in more than 400 companies since its founding. The firm was founded in 1993 by Sami Mnaymneh and Tony Tamer and is headquartered in Miami.
Baird was the financial advisor to MISTRAS, and Texas Capital Securities was the financial advisor to H.I.G.
The transaction is expected to close in late 2026 or early 2027.