Cardinal Infrastructure Group Inc., a rapidly expanding turnkey construction services provider headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, has filed to go public on the Nasdaq under the proposed ticker “CDNL.” The company plans to offer 11.5 million shares of Class A common stock at an estimated range of $20.00–$22.00, implying gross proceeds of roughly $241 million at the midpoint before underwriting costs. Based solely on the 13.2 million Class A shares expected to be outstanding after the offering, the IPO would value Cardinal at an initial public float market capitalization of approximately $278 million at the midpoint price. However, when including the 23.4 million Class B shares paired with LLC units that are exchangeable into Class A shares on a one-for-one basis, Cardinal’s fully diluted market capitalization increases to approximately $769 million, reflecting the total equity value implied by the IPO pricing structure.
Founded in 2013, Cardinal has scaled from a niche wet-utility install firm into a full-service platform providing water, sewer, stormwater, grading, blasting, paving, erosion control, and site-preparation services across residential, industrial, municipal, and commercial markets in the Southeastern United States. The company is concentrated in North Carolina’s most dynamic growth corridors — the Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greensboro regions — where new building permits significantly exceed national levels. Cardinal emphasizes vertical integration, performing most project services in-house to reduce subcontracting, compress construction timelines, and defend margins. According to the filing, management cites long-standing relationships with major national and regional home builders as a key growth driver, allowing the company to prioritize negotiation-based contract wins over lowest-bid competitive bidding.
Cardinal has executed six acquisitions since 2021, with 27% of cumulative growth attributed to M&A activity and 73% generated organically. Recent transactions include the October 2025 purchase of Red Clay Industries, which expands capabilities in asphalt, concrete, materials reclamation, and soil stabilization. Backlog trends underscore strong forward revenue visibility: Cardinal reported a $401 million year-end backlog in 2023, which expanded to $512 million at year-end 2024, and further increased to $646 million as of September 30, 2025. Management notes that low maintenance capex relative to EBITDA makes the business highly cash generative, supporting continued acquisition activity and expansion into adjacent service categories.
Cardinal’s financial profile reflects consistent top-line expansion, disciplined bidding processes, and margin stability supported by vertical integration. Revenue grew approximately 27% year-over-year in 2024, while adjusted EBITDA expanded at a similar pace. Net income margins remain near 9% — notably high for the civil infrastructure construction industry — and adjusted EBITDA margins are consistently in the high teens. The company intends to allocate IPO proceeds to redeem LLC units from continuing holders, reduce borrowings under its credit facility, and fund general corporate purposes.
Looking ahead, Cardinal plans to leverage its presence in the Carolinas to expand into other high-growth Southeastern regions, while continuing to add specialized service lines such as asphalt production, precast concrete, CCTV inspection, and materials recycling. Management’s stated growth thesis centers on becoming the “platform of choice” for infrastructure construction projects requiring increasingly sophisticated technical execution, and the company believes its vertically integrated operating model and skilled workforce training programs provide strategic defensibility in a fragmented market.
Cardinal’s IPO is expected the week of December 8th, 2025