Exponent has reached an agreement to invest in OFS, the Naas, Co. Kildare-headquartered global provider of specialist gas turbine and rotating equipment technical services, backing incumbent co-founders Eric Kavanagh and Joseph Dunne. The transaction is subject to standard regulatory approvals and expected to complete in Q4 2026.

OFS was founded in 2002 by Kavanagh and Dunne, currently employing approximately 200 people with offices in Naas, Houston and Singapore. The company deploys a global team of engineers and technicians who install, commission, maintain and operate industrial and aeroderivative gas turbines across more than 40 countries for OEM customers including Mitsubishi Power, Solar Turbines, Siemens, GE Power and Vantage.

OFS has confirmed plans to double its workforce in the coming years. Revenue and EBITDA are not publicly disclosed. Exponent is a London-headquartered European private equity firm with over €2 billion in AUM; its recent Irish engineering investments include H&MV Engineering and Ethos Engineering, having invested in Irish businesses since 2012.

The structural engineering driver is the emergence of behind-the-meter gas turbines as primary on-site power infrastructure for hyperscale and colocation data centres facing grid connection delays. Major data centre operators across Ireland, the UK and Europe are specifying aeroderivative turbines as permanent engineering infrastructure, not backup systems.

The specialist services required, precision commissioning, vibration analysis, performance diagnostics, real-time monitoring and 24/7 operational support on turbomachinery operating at sustained high load, sit in a different engineering discipline entirely from standard mechanical and electrical contractors. OFS's 20-year track record of working directly on behalf of OEMs, with teams embedded in power generation facilities globally, is the engineering capability Exponent is backing.

The founder retention structure reflects sound engineering services logic. Kavanagh and Dunne's OEM relationships and technical credibility with Mitsubishi, Siemens, GE Power and Solar Turbines are the validated engineering reputation that underpins every customer contract, retaining them with Exponent capital is the correct structure for a business where the founders' technical authority is the product.

Source: exponentpe.com / rte.ie / kfmradio.com / pehub.com