Cardinal Infrastructure Group closed its Allied Paving acquisition on Oct. 1, bringing an Atlanta paving contractor with about $100 million in annual revenue inside a site-work company that wants to self-perform that trade in Georgia. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based contractor announced the closing without restating the price. Its August earnings release did: roughly $120 million.
What Cardinal Paid in the Allied Paving Acquisition
Per that second-quarter release, consideration is about $62 million in cash and about $58 million in Class A stock, subject to post-closing adjustments, with a six-month lock-up on the shares. Cardinal described the price as 5.5 times Allied’s adjusted EBITDA and put Allied’s margin at 20.3%.
Those are company figures, and one of them has moved. In August, Cardinal said Allied generates about $108 million a year. The closing announcement says about $100 million on a standalone basis. Neither release explains the gap. At $108 million and a 20.3% margin, the multiple works out to roughly $120 million. At $100 million, the same math gives about $112 million.
Why a Site Contractor Wants Its Own Paving Crews
Cardinal does clearing, grading, erosion control and wet utilities for residential, commercial and industrial sites across the Southeast. Paving is the last trade in that sequence, and whoever controls it controls the turnover date. Chief Operating Officer Benji Wood said owning Allied’s crews lets Cardinal schedule asphalt directly behind its grading teams and shorten project timelines.
There’s an accounting wrinkle. Cardinal says part of Allied’s volume will now be performed on Cardinal’s own projects, so it’ll show up as margin, not as consolidated revenue. Anyone adding $100 million to the top line will overshoot.
John McLean, Allied’s CEO, joins Cardinal’s leadership to run paving across Georgia. Cardinal says it targets founder-led companies, and paying nearly half in locked-up stock keeps the seller tied to the share price into next spring.
Nine Acquisitions Since 2021
Allied is Cardinal’s ninth deal since 2021 and its third this year, after ALGC in February and Charlotte-based Piedmont Pipe in May. The company reported record second-quarter revenue of $226.9 million, up 114% from a year earlier, with organic growth of 64% by its own count. Backlog stood at $866 million on June 30. Full-year revenue guidance is $880 million to $900 million.
It’s a familiar roll-up pattern in Southeast civil work. Construction Partners runs it in asphalt, where a Pensacola plant purchase came with no disclosed price, and Vortex does it in trenchless, where terms stay private as a rule. Cardinal at least published its number.
A Smaller Utility Contractor Deal the Same Day
Energy Services of America, the Huntington, West Virginia, contractor, said Oct. 1 it will buy the operating assets of FAMCO, a West Virginia water and sewer contractor, for a base price of $6.95 million. The structure is unusually exact: three-eighths cash at closing, half in Energy Services stock, and one-eighth held back for a post-closing true-up. Closing is expected around Oct. 9.
Different scale, same logic. Both buyers are public, and both paid about half in stock for a trade they already work beside.
That stock component is the part sellers should study. A founder who takes shares in a serial acquirer is betting on the next several deals, not just his own.
Cardinal’s third-quarter report will be the first to include a closing date for Allied. Watch margin, not revenue. That’s where a $120 million paver is supposed to show up.