Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd. (FDF) announced it has partnered with Prophet Equity LP, a private equity firm headquartered in Southlake, TX that specializes in control equity investments for middle and lower middle-market companies. Under the terms of the transaction, FDF becomes an owned affiliate of FDF Resources Holdings LLC and Prophet Equity LP.

Mike Francis, founder and president of FDF, will continue to play an important role in the business going forward. “This event represents a watershed in FDF’s 35+ year history,” Francis commented, “We are fortunate to partner with a capital provider that shares our core values of delivering high quality oilfield solutions to our E&P, pressure pumping and proppant supplier customers coupled with a strong track record of driving profitable growth.”

Ross Gatlin, Prophet Equity’s CEO and managing partner, explained, “The opportunity to partner with Francis Drilling Fluids fits right into our strike zone – a strategically viable, asset rich business which is poised to benefit from the continued growth in demand for domestically produced oil, natural gas, and other petrochemical ‘liquids’ where our deep operational toolkit can be deployed alongside management in order to accelerate the business to the next level of performance.”

John Tatum, a principal at Prophet Equity, said, “FDF has a terrific leadership team and dedicated, capable employees. With such a strategically strong business and unique and diversified service proposition, we see many opportunities to help them continue to deliver a strong value proposition to their customers in both existing and new markets.”

Founded in 1977, FDF is a fracturing materials logistics company in the U.S. During 2011, the company handled over 450 million pounds of fracturing materials within its unique logistics ecosystem, which is comprised of rail spurs, warehouses, trans-loading facilities and storage silos.