Carlyle Group selling airline services company PrimeFlight to D.C. private equity firm Capitol Meridian Group

By Alan Kline – Senior Editor, Washington Business Journal

The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CG) is exiting its investment in the airline services firm PrimeFlight Aviation Services and selling it to an upstart private equity group headed by Carlyle alums.

The private equity giant said earlier this week it struck a deal to sell Sugar Land, Texas-based PrimeFlight to Capitol Meridian Partners in D.C. and The Sterling Group in Houston. Capitol Meridian, founded in 2021 by longtime Carlyle executives Adam Palmer and Brooke Coburn, and Sterling will each own 50% of PrimeFlight, the companies announced in a joint news release.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

PrimeFlight provides a broad range of services to airlines and airports across the globe, from cleaning and maintenance to baggage handling to de-icing and refueling planes. Carlyle acquired the company in 2017 and on its watch PrimeFlight grew exponentially, buying up roughly 20 companies over a four-year stretch in the U.S. and abroad. It now has operations at 235 airports worldwide and has about 12,000 employees.

For Capitol Meridian, the deal would be its third since Palmer and Coburn founded the firm two years ago after working together at Carlyle for more than 25 years.

In April 2022 it acquired Altumint Inc., a Lanham company that provides traffic safety technology and related services to state and local governments, and in July 2022 it was part of a consortium of private equity groups that bought the Tysons government consulting firm LMI for a reported $350 million.

Palmer, who worked with PrimeFlight during his time at Carlyle, said he is looking forward to reuniting with PrimeFlight CEO Dan Bucaro and helping guide the company through its next phase of growth.