Digging deep.

• Author: Duckwall, Jane
• Position: NC100: DEALMAKER OF THE YEAR

Eric Pike

Chief executive officer

PIKE CORP., Mount Airy

Utility construction and engineering

EMPLOYEES: 7,500

COMPANY FOUNDED: 1945

NOTABLE: PIKE'S PRETAX PROFIT GAINED 40% SINCE 2014 LEVERAGED BUYOUT

Eric Pike has initiated and overseen multiple transactions since 1998, when he took the reins at the Mount Airy-based construction and engineering company started by his grandfather, Floyd Pike, in 1945 to serve the electric power industry. Those deals include a leveraged buyout in 2002 in which New York private-equity firm Lindsay Goldberg LLC gained an 85% stake; seven acquisitions between 2003 and 2012; an initial public offering in 2005; and another LBO, with New York-based Court Square Capital Partners, to return Pike Corp. to private ownership in 2014.

It's the latter deal of which Pike says he's most proud. The $668 million transaction made sense, he says, because the quarterly pressures of public ownership were not a good fit for Pike Corp. The company's customers, which include Duke Energy and other investor-owned utilities, municipalities and power producers, hire the company for construction and maintenance of power lines and substations. Pike has 7,500 employees in 38 states. Revenue and profit fluctuate based on natural events, while major capital investments are required to maintain distribution lines and provide other services.

Going private took 18 months, a more complex process than an initial public offering, says Pike, who controlled about 10% of the company's shares at the time of the sale. It required finding investors, negotiating terms, filing SEC...