Accelevation's owners took $318.4 million in nine months and left $4.5 million of equity behind

Accelevation▲+10.65% — Accelevation, up 10.65 percent today, the Ohio maker of power and cooling systems for AI data centers, filed its first earnings release as a public company↗ on November 12: revenue up 65.9% to $202.2 million, bookings up 364% to $768.9 million, backlog at $1.7 billion ¹². The stock closed at $12.21, up 2.52% but 32% below the $18.00 IPO price ³⁴. The balance sheet explains the gap.

The owners took the cash first

In the nine months to September 30, distributions and notes issued to members came to $318.4 million, against $16.9 million a year earlier ¹. Long-term debt rose to $648.8 million from $269.9 million at year-end ¹. Total equity fell to $4.5 million from $307.2 million ¹.

On October 1 the company sold 30 million shares at $18.00↗, below the marketed $20 to $24 range; it kept $170.6 million net and sent it straight to debt repayment, while sponsor Olympus Partners sold 20 million of the 30 million shares ¹⁵⁶. Three weeks later came a new $650 million credit agreement, a $400 million revolver and a $250 million term loan, on what the CFO calls significantly improved pricing ¹².

Growth that earns less

Q3 net income fell 76.9% to $3.2 million ¹². Gross profit rose 40.4% while revenue rose 65.9%, so gross margin slipped from about 34.5% to 29.3%; adjusted EBITDA margin fell 502 basis points to 18.7% ¹². The margin math points to falling prices on the work, not slack demand, the book-to-bill is 3.8x ¹. Management guided 2026 to $905-915 million of revenue and $155-165 million of adjusted EBITDA ¹.

Insiders bought in, and two customers are 61% of revenue

The counterpoint is real: CEO Michael Rubiera bought 200,000 shares at $18.00 on IPO day, and insiders bought $4.1 million in 90 days; seven analysts rate the stock Buy, consensus target $19.43↗ ⁴. The company's own risk factors warn of concentrated hyperscale customers, two of them about 61% of last year's revenue, and of backlog subject to cancellation ¹⁵.

A buyer at $12.21 owns a $1.45 billion market cap with $4.5 million of book capital, $648.8 million of debt and a sponsor holding roughly 85% of voting power ¹³⁵. Watch the next reading: how fast Olympus sells down, and whether Q4 gross margin recovers ¹³⁵.