Blackstone's Perpetual PE Strategy Acquires Champions Group

What happened

On February 17, 2026, Blackstone announced that funds managed by BXPE, its perpetual private equity strategy, had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Champions Group from Odyssey Investment Partners. Champions Group is an Orange County, California, residential services platform that provides heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical services. Odyssey and the company's management retained a significant minority investment. HarbourVest, which held an interest in the business through one of its funds, reported in its first-quarter 2026 fund report that the sale to Blackstone had been completed. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The seller

Champions Group began as Service Champions, a heating, air conditioning, and plumbing company founded in 2000. Odyssey announced its acquisition of Service Champions in January 2021. At that point founder and CEO Leland Smith stayed on to lead the business, and he and other executives kept significant ownership positions. The company then operated in California, Arizona, and Nevada under local trade names that included Service Champions, Moore Home Services, Bell Brothers, and Adeedo!.

The business became Champions Group Holdings in August 2023, by which point its brands operated across Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Washington. It kept buying after that. In January 2026, a month before the Blackstone announcement, it acquired Lex Cooling, Heating, Plumbing & Electrical, a North Texas residential contractor founded in 2004 by Cory and Anthony Contreras. Lex kept its brand and trade name. Other brands in the group include Bee's Plumbing in Seattle and HELP in the Cincinnati area.

Frank DiMarco is chief executive. The company reports more than 1,800 field technicians and 150,000 active members across tier one metropolitan areas, and the Orange County Business Journal reports more than 2,400 employees. "With Odyssey's backing, we built one of the premier home services companies by empowering local leaders, investing in great teams, and earning customer trust," DiMarco said in the announcement.

Brian Kwait, Odyssey's chief executive, and Dennis Moore, a managing principal, said that over the past five years Odyssey worked with DiMarco's team to build Champions Group into a larger, more diverse company "through a range of value generating organic growth initiatives and several strategic acquisitions." Latham & Watkins was legal counsel to Odyssey.

The buyer

Blackstone (NYSE: BX) bought the company through funds managed by BXPE, its perpetual private equity strategy. Michael Staub, a senior managing director, and Maury Bardovi, a managing director, spoke for the firm in the announcement. "We are thrilled to partner with Frank DiMarco and Odyssey as we continue to build Champions Group into a multi-service residential services platform," they said. "By bringing together best-in-class essential services under one umbrella, we have an opportunity to redefine what homeowners expect from a residential services provider." Weil advised Blackstone.

Who else is backing multi-trade home services platforms

The closest comparable is Redwood Services, a Memphis-based home services platform founded in 2020 that partners with contracting companies across the United States. Redwood announced a significant equity investment from Altas Partners in May 2025, and its founding backer, Union Main Group, stayed in the investor group, with Union Main co-founder Adam Hanover as board chairman. Homepros described the Champions Group agreement as the first major platform-level residential HVAC deal since Redwood's. Both follow the same pattern: a new investor comes in at the top of an assembled multi-brand platform, and the backer that built it keeps a stake. OffDeal follows the buyers across these trades on its home and facility services industry page.

What this means for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical owners

For Lex's founders, the owner behind their buyer agreed to sell it within five weeks of their own announcement. That is the timeline an owner selling into a sponsor-backed platform should plan around: the platform itself can be recapitalized soon after you join, and commitments in your agreement, such as keeping your brand, were made by the platform, not by whoever owns it next. The investors the announcement names as staying in are Odyssey and management, who hold their equity in Champions Group itself. For an owner weighing an offer from a platform, whether rollover equity is offered in the parent company decides whether you share in a sale like this one.

OffDeal is an advisory firm that helps lower-middle-market business owners sell with confidence. Reach out to learn more about our expertise with HVAC, plumbing, and electrical businesses in California.

Own a HVAC, plumbing, and electrical business with $5M–$100M in revenue? We’re glad to give you an honest read on what it’s worth and who would buy it — no pitch, no pressure. Get a free valuation.

Source: Blackstone - https://www.blackstone.com/news/press/blackstone-announces-agreement-to-acquire-champions-group/