NEED TO SELL?

If the housing market continues to stabilize, Overland Solutions Inc., a provider of audits and property surveys to the insurance industry, could make for an attractive deal opportunity for a buyout firm or a portfolio company. The company is backed by New Mountain Capital,

Tracing its roots back to 1951, Overland Solutions calls itself the nation’s leading independent provider of audits, underwriting and property surveys to the property and casualty insurance industry. It has the only national platform in this sector, with approximately 1,800 employees and representatives and 23 offices nationwide. The company generates less than $100 million in annual revenue, according to a source.

In 2003, New Mountain bought the Overland Park, Kansas-based company, then a division of a company called Choicepoint Inc. (which Reed Elsevier Group Plc later acquired), for $87 million, according to Capital IQ. Since then, the company has completed three acquisitions, according to New Mountain’s Web site.

New Mountain’s hold on the company was likely extended by the downturn in the housing and construction industries, which decreased demand for Overland Solutions’s services. In the meantime, over the last few years New Mountain has built out the company’s management team, invested in digital technology, and made other infrastructure improvements, according to the source.

The source indicated that given the company’s niche, it would make more sense to eventually sell the company to a strategic buyer in the insurance services industry as opposed to another private equity firm. In fact, the company might make for an attractive add-on opportunity for a portfolio company. New Mountain does not have a time frame in which it hopes to exit the company, the source said.