Overland Park, Kansas-based Ferrellgas Partners LP has purchased Eastern Sierra Propane, based in Bishop, California.

Founded in 1993 by Tom Sigler and Rudy Forster, Eastern Sierra is a propane retailer serving residential and commercial customers in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain range.

Sigler’s house served initially as company headquarters, and for its propane storage Eastern Sierra used a 12,000-gallon tank at a customer location in exchange for installing vapor meters on its gas dryers. Eastern Sierra expanded to a leased property nearby and installed its first 30,000-gallon tank.

Sigler acquired Forster’s 50 percent ownership and has grown Eastern Sierra alongside his son Jason, who joined in 1998.

“When I decided to sell my business, I researched companies who had the best transaction closing results, and I found that Matrix Capital was the top firm,” Sigler says. “They were helpful by first providing me with a valuation of my business and then finding a buyer who was the best fit for my employees and customers.”

Matrix Capital Markets Group provided merger and acquisition advisory services to Eastern Sierra Propane, which included valuation advisory, marketing the business through a confidential, structured sale process, and negotiation of the transaction. The transaction was managed by Sean Dooley, managing director; Spencer Cavalier, co-head of Matrix’s Downstream Energy & Convenience Retail Investment Banking Group; and Nate Wah, senior associate. Stephen Kappos served as legal counsel for Eastern Sierra.

“We very much appreciate the trust that Tom placed in us to advise him on the sale of the company that he and his family worked so hard to build,” Dooley says. “It was a pleasure working with him and the Ferrellgas team on this transaction, and we wish Tom and Jason all the best in their future endeavors.”

Ferrellgas, the nation’s second-largest propane retailer, serves propane customers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Its Blue Rhino exchange brand is sold at 60,000 locations nationwide. LP Gas inducted Blue Rhino founder Billy Prim into the LP Gas Hall of Fame during a black-tie dinner last year in Nashville, Tennessee.

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