NWP expands its national footprint with acquisition

NWP Services Corporation, a provider of utility cost recovery billing services and financial transaction processing solutions for the multifamily housing industry, has acquired Conservation Billing Services, Inc. (CBSI), the multifamily services division of Vertex Business Services.

208

The acquisition further positions NWP as the leading national provider, increasing its footprint to include 45 states, completing its west-to-east move and adding a host of CBSI customers to NWP’s client list.

“By the common measure of units under contract and bills out the door, we now are the largest billing company in the U.S.,” said NWP president and CEO Mike Radice.

CBSI is a Tampa-based provider of billing, energy management and meter installation and maintenance services to multihousing communities and other commercial real estate properties. The veteran of the utility-cost recovery business was purchased by Alliance Data for $15 million in 2003 and then sold to Vertex five years later.

NWP was founded in 1995 in California and has been a dominant player in the West Coast market. Over the past few years, the company has established a significant footprint in the Central Region by expanding out of the Texas marketplace and acquiring Indiana-based Viastar, another provider of utility billing services, in August 2008.

NWP now has major operations in Austin, Tampa Bay and Irvine, Calif., an office in Norcross, Ga., and 15 other satellite locations throughout the United States.

“So we’re very well positioned to provide local and regional expertise and give localized support to the multifamily housing business community,” said Radice.

“Many of our common customers that we have shared over the years now can reap the benefits of a single platform and a single reporting system for their properties nationwide, which allows our larger customers to manage national policies through one provider on properties, regardless of what states they are in,” said Radice.

CBSI customers may now take advantage of NWP’s robust regulatory compliance capabilities, provided by three of the industry’s leading regulatory attorneys. They will be able to further strengthen their bottom line and increase the value of their multifamily properties with the quality and breadth of services offered by NWP, including its award-winning utility management, resident utility and rent billing and electronic rent payment services.