Greenberg Traurig shareholders Drew Altman and Jaret Davis as well as associate Rosy Aleman in Miami.

Miami-based Watsco Inc., one of the biggest distributors of heating, air conditioning and refrigeration equipment, got even bigger with the purchase of another company in the same sector.

Watsco acquired HVAC distributor Peirce-Phelps Inc., based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, for $85 million Aug. 1.

"Peirce-Phelps is in exactly the business that Watsco is in. What Peirce-Phelps allows is for Watsco to have a larger geographic footprint," said Drew Altman, who led the Greenberg Traurig legal team that closed the deal.

Altman, chairman of the Miami corporate practice, worked with Jaret Davis, both shareholders, and associate Rosy Aleman, all in Miami. Shareholder Stephen Pepper in New York also worked on the transaction.

The purchase fits well into Watsco's buy-and-build growth strategy. The publicly traded company was founded in 1956 as a parts manufacturer and evolved into a distributor that seeks growth in existing markets as well as geographic expansion.

Last year, Watsco had $4.5 billion in revenue and boasted an 18% shareholder return, according to its website.

"Watsco has this buy-and-build philosophy where they have been extraordinarily successful for many, many years in expanding their business in large part through the acquisition of other companies in the HVAC industry," Altman said. "In most instances these companies do retain their own brand identity. I expect this will be the case here."

Peirce-Phelps will operate as a standalone subsidiary of Carrier Enterprise LLC, a joint venture of Watsco and HVAC manufacturer Carrier Corp. Watsco is majority owner of Carrier Enterprise, holding 80% and Carrier Corp. the remainder. The two companies have several joint ventures.

The acquisition allows Watsco to tap into Peirce-Phelps' 9,000 customer base in 19 locations in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Its annual sales are $206 million.

The purchase price breaks down to $10 million cash and 370,000 shares of Watsco common stock, Altman said.

Peirce-Phelps used some of the revenue to pay off debt, although Altman declined to disclose the amount.

The deal was relatively straightforward since Altman and Davis have represented Watsco in securities matters for over a decade.

"We've been their outside SEC counsel for many, many, many years. Particularly in more recent years we handled their larger merger and acquisition transactions," said Altman, who has worked on behalf of the company since 2007.

Davis has represented Watsco for even longer.

Despite their large foothold in the HVAC distribution industry, at their core both Watsco and Peirce-Phelps are family companies.

Peirce-Phelps was founded in 1926 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates W. Grant Peirce Jr., J. Trevor Peirce and Charles Phelps and is led by a descendant of the Peirce family, president and CEO Brian Peirce.

Watsco was founded in 1956, and Albert Nahmad acquired the company in 1973 when it was a Hialeah-based seller of air conditioning parts and random items like roach spray. Nahmad grew the company and is chairman and CEO. His son A.J. Nahmad is president.

Albert Nahmad said in a news release that the latest acquisition allows Watsco to expand to new markets.

"We look forward to supporting their growth plans and to leverage our customer-focused technology investments, enabling them to evolve their digital capabilities more rapidly and completely as part of the Watsco family," he said.

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