Blackstone Funds Agree to Buy Flow Control Holdings From Audax

Blackstone announced on September 10, 2026, that private equity funds affiliated with Blackstone Capital Partners and Blackstone Energy Transition Partners have entered a definitive agreement to acquire Flow Control Holdings from Audax Private Equity. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

As part of the transaction, Audax will retain a minority equity stake in Flow Control Holdings and continue to partner with Blackstone and the company’s management to support the business. Audax, the seller, also published the announcement on its own news page.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Flow Control Holdings is described in the announcement as a leading U.S. provider of highly engineered flow control solutions and components for the data center liquid cooling, food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets. The company’s components are used by original equipment manufacturers and hyperscalers for coolant distribution units, in-row manifolds, and secondary fluid networks. The company describes itself as specializing in highly engineered sanitary and high-purity flow components for critical applications within the data center, food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries.

According to the announcement, liquid cooling is significantly more energy efficient than air cooling, allowing data centers to reduce CO2 emissions, improve power usage effectiveness, and support the next generation of compute.

Bilal Khan, Senior Managing Director, and Mark Zhu, Managing Director, at Blackstone, said they believe Flow Control Holdings has “enormous tailwinds for continued growth as the latest generations of high-performance AI infrastructure increasingly rely on liquid cooling technology for significantly improved energy and chip efficiency.” They said the company has built deep trust with its customers for demanding workloads across both the data center and the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets. Khan and Zhu said Blackstone plans to invest in the company’s capacity expansion plan, support liquid cooling demand, and further accelerate growth behind what they described as one of Blackstone’s highest-conviction investment themes, the buildout of AI infrastructure.

Scott Kerns, Chief Executive Officer of Flow Control Holdings, said the company has invested significantly over the past four years to develop a leading position in the data center cooling market supporting its original equipment manufacturer customers and hyperscalers. He credited Audax with supporting the company through investments in the team, capital for new production and distribution facilities, and the execution of 10 acquisitions to build capabilities across the data center cooling, food, beverage, and pharma markets.

Audax Private Equity Partner Don Bramley said the sale represents a tremendous outcome for Flow Control Holdings’ team and for Audax’s investors, describing the company’s leadership as outstanding partners in building the business. He called the investment a “text-book example” of Audax’s ability to build strategic assets through disciplined execution of its Value Agenda and Buy & Build approach, and said Audax looks forward to partnering with Blackstone and continuing to support the company.

Advisors and Firm Profiles

Houlihan Lokey (HLI ) and Jefferies served as financial advisors to Flow Control Holdings, with Ropes & Gray LLP serving as legal counsel. William Blair, UBS, and Goldman Sachs (GS ) served as financial advisors to Blackstone, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP serving as legal counsel.

Blackstone describes itself as the world’s largest alternative asset manager, with over $1.3 trillion in assets under management across global investment strategies focused on real estate, private equity, credit, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, secondaries, and hedge funds. Blackstone Energy Transition Partners is the firm’s strategy for control-oriented equity investments in energy-related businesses and has committed approximately $30 billion of equity globally.

Audax Private Equity is headquartered in Boston, with offices in San Francisco, New York, London, and Hong Kong. As of July 2026, the firm had approximately $20 billion of assets under management and, since its inception in 1999, has invested in more than 180 platforms and more than 1,500 add-on acquisitions.

Audax Ownership Since 2022

Audax announced on March 31, 2022, that it had completed a strategic growth investment in Flow Control Holdings; financial terms of that transaction were also not disclosed. The 2022 announcement described the company as based in Chicago and as a premier provider of sanitary flow components to producers of foods, beverages, and pharmaceuticals, with brands including Steel & O’Brien and Ace Sanitary and a portfolio spanning fittings, valves, hoses, pumps, and other components.

Phil Pejovich, the company’s chief executive at the time, was to continue leading the business alongside the existing management team. Pejovich said then that with Audax’s backing the company would be well-positioned to continue expanding its portfolio of highly engineered flow control solutions, and Audax Managing Director Ryan Bruehlmann said the firm looked forward to driving growth both organically and through strategic mergers and acquisitions.

In the 2022 transaction, Baird served as financial advisor to Audax and KPMG served as financial advisor to Flow Control Holdings, while Ropes & Gray served as legal counsel to Audax and Dentons LLP served as legal counsel to the company.