Bernhard Capital Partners has officially closed its roughly $1 billion all-cash acquisition of Bowman Consulting Group, taking the national engineering services provider private and ending its run as a publicly traded company. The deal closed Friday, November 6, and shareholders are set to receive $43 in cash for each share they held. Bowman's stock has already stopped trading and is headed for formal delisting from Nasdaq.
The closing caps a deal first detailed in Bowman's August 10 investor FAQ, which laid out the terms of the buyout well before it became official. According to Investing.com, the transaction closed on November 6, 2026, valued at approximately $1 billion. Bowman had told investors in that earlier filing that each share of common stock would convert into the right to receive $43.00 in cash once the merger closed, according to the Bowman investor FAQ.
Reston, Virginia-based Bowman provides engineering and related technical services for the built environment, as TipRanks notes. Its work spans planning, geospatial services, construction management, commissioning, environmental consulting and land procurement, per the same Investing.com report. With the deal done, Bowman becomes a privately held company backed by Bernhard, the firm said in its own announcement of the closing.
A 30-Year Company Changes Hands
Gary Bowman, the company's founder and CEO, framed the sale as a milestone rather than an ending. “For 30 years, Bowman has methodically grown into a national business,” he said, describing the closing as the start of an exciting new era for the firm. He added that Bernhard understands Bowman's business and shares its conviction in future opportunities, and said Bernhard respects the entrepreneurial culture the company has built.
Bernhard Capital Partners, a private markets investment firm, and Bowman say they plan to pursue organic growth and strategic acquisitions, expand Bowman's technical capabilities, and strengthen its presence across key infrastructure markets, according to the company's announcement. Mark Spender, partner and chief investment officer at Bernhard Capital, said Bowman's capabilities and national reach position it for continued growth. Bowman says it will keep investing in its people while adding new expertise to the organization and delivering responsiveness and technical excellence for clients.
Deal Terms and Advisers
Bowman's own FAQ had set expectations for the deal's timeline months before closing, saying in August that the transaction was expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027, pending shareholder approval, regulatory sign-off and other customary conditions. The same filing said Bowman and its board were permitted to actively solicit, consider and negotiate alternative acquisition proposals only until 5:00 p.m. ET on September 13, 2026, a window that has since closed.
BofA Securities served as financial advisor to Bowman, while Latham & Watkins LLP acted as Bowman's legal counsel; Kirkland & Ellis LLP represented Bernhard, according to Investing.com. At the time of its August FAQ, Bowman described itself as having more than 2,500 team members and more than 100 U.S. offices, per the Bowman investor FAQ — figures that reflected the company's footprint before the deal closed.
Part of a Busier Dealmaking Year
The Bowman buyout lands amid a broader surge in engineering and construction-sector dealmaking. Capstone Partners reported that AEC Services M&A activity totaled 361 transactions announced or completed in 2025, a 10.1% increase year over year, with private-equity-driven deals rising 32.7% in the same period. Valuations climbed too: M&A multiples in the sector averaged 13.2x EV/EBITDA in 2025, up from 11.1x the year before, while median deal valuations jumped 84.9% to $110 million from $59.5 million in 2024.
Bowman itself was an active dealmaker heading into its own sale, completing six transactions in 2025, according to Capstone's sector report. Public strategic M&A activity across the AEC Services sector also increased 42.9% year over year to 50 transactions in 2025, the firm found, underscoring how consolidation has accelerated across the industry Bowman now exits as a public company, per WBRZ.
