The Private Equity for Families Blog

In our last blog I wrote about the mutual fund industry creating two kinds of funds; retail and prime and non-prime institutional. Institutional funds would have a fluctuating NAV and could carry liquidity constraints called “gates” unless the underlying assets were government or agency securities. Now Deposits May Require

Over the years I have learned that the real news begins in the back pages of every newspaper, especially The Wall Street Journal. Therefore, I was not surprised to find on page C8 of the February 6, 2015 Wall Street Journal an article about how changes in money market

Private Equity firms fashion themselves as pretty good students of relative value. While managers may have different investment styles from deep value and relative value, to growth at a reasonable price and straight growth, they all understand the nuances of valuation. For example, as a value investor we have

Happy New Year! PE4Fams has not been slacking in the New Year … just busy with multiple opportunities to grow our portfolio companies and acquire some new platforms. Over the last 30 days our team has been conducting all kinds of due diligence from quality of earnings to customer

As lifelong Cleveland Browns fans, the private equity team at CapitalWorks has shared the collective angst of the City regarding the demotion of Brian Hoyer and the fumbled handoff to Johnny Manzel. We have seen this play before – 18 times before – and we all know how it

We have seen many signs of re-shoring in our portfolio companies. Some of that trend is a function of China suppliers re-prioritizing their manufacturing focus towards high unit volumes where they can justify capital investment in productivity enhancing technologies. Niche manufacturers, like our fractional horsepower AC/DC motor business, have

Recent financial news is full of warnings about a slowdown in worldwide growth. From Wal-Mart and AT&T, to IBM and Target, it appears that same store sales and unit growth are challenged. This is amazing to me in light of the highly stimulative policies employed by central banks around

The overwhelming response to Chris O’Dell’s news that she is retiring from CapitalWorks and taking her talents to Charlotte, NC reminds me that success in private equity, like life, is all about your people. Chris has earned the affection and goodwill of our investors, portfolio management teams, intermediaries and

Assets under management in private equity funds continue to grow and so does the desire for LP’s to see co-investment opportunities alongside these funds. Generally reserved for the most important investors, many fund managers have entered into these arrangements to get proprietary deal flow, deep industry expertise, exceptional portfolio

The SEC is an Uninvited Guest Title IV of the Dodd-Frank legislation enacted in 2010 requires investment advisers managing more than $150 million in assets to register with the SEC. This includes private equity firms like ours. Once registered, advisers are subject to audit and enforcement actions by the

Over the past two weeks, we’ve discussed how to create a culture of accountability and what is involved in long-term incentive plans. In the final installment of our compensation series, we take a look at some recent trends in compensation and ask “What is your company’s compensation philosophy?” According

At CapitalWorks, we’re constantly evaluating and debating the optimum method to align executive compensation with the long-term goals of ownership. The common theory is that executives who think like owners have greater incentive to build long-term value and less incentive to push risky short-term strategies. The most common forms

A critical factor to a successful portfolio company is attracting and retaining motivated, high-quality executives. To motivate those executives, it is imperative for private equity-backed companies to implement compensation schemes that nurture performance-based cultures and align management with ownership. High performing, middle market portfolio companies employ lean management teams

Todd Martin and I recently learned about a success story for a family office participating in a fully marketed industrial company. Our friends at Lincoln International were acting as the exclusive financial advisor for an industrial company that participates in the filtration industry. They had significant interest from Private

Tax Advantaged Structuring Entity Structure Impacting Returns While uncertainty still exists with the overall U.S. tax code and rates, one thing that is not expected to change is the tax advantages of structuring a business as a flow through entity to avoid the double taxation of a C-Corp. By

It’s what you keep, not what you make! For the United States, the period 1982-2000 might be regaled by financial historians as one of the greatest periods of wealth creation in the history of the world.  The U.S. stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, grew at an

I attended a seminar recently where the host law firm reviewed the SEC audit activity of private equity firms that has been spawned by Dodd-Frank. In attendance was a private equity professional whose firm had just completed one of these audits. His experience matched the law firm’s report that the

A recent article in the Financial Times, “Private Equity Steps Up The Pace of Pass The Parcel” (Wednesday, June 18, 2014) shows an interesting trend that may affect fund of funds specializing in the private equity asset class. Anne-Sylvaine Chassany reports that the percentage of reported M&A transactions that

CapitalWorks is excited to announce its commitment to a periodic blog branded as “PE4FAMS.” While many of our competitors in the private equity world are funded predominantly by institutional capital (pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, public retirement funds, endowments), all of CapitalWorks’ funding is from successful families.