Private & Affiliate Investments

Creative thinkers who embrace complex transactions and solutions: we are "open for business" and we have capital to deploy.

At Werklund’s Private and Affiliate group, our investment philosophy exemplifies our entrepreneurial spirit and is epitomized by our commitment to our partners and stakeholders. Our nimble investment strategy allows us to invest in diverse companies, at various stages of business, and across most industries. This flexibility enables us the freedom to quickly move on the most promising business opportunities as they present themselves.

Investment instruments range from common or preferred shares to convertible debentures on early stage deals; later stage growth opportunities may include subordinated debt financing, with any combination of attributes from current pay interest and accrued interest, to equity kickers, cash sweeps, and back-end loaded bullet payments.

Our investment horizon can be as little as six months to as long as seven years, and we are able to arrange larger transactions through other partners.

Our most recurrent types of financing include:

• Subordinated Debt
• Bridge lending
• Private Equity
• Private Investment in Public Companies
• Real Estate

Broad by Design

Unlike most institutional funds, we choose to be broad by design. Strategically, we are not constrained by industry specialization, and our flexible investment approach allows us to focus on different sectors as they move through economic cycles, and on certain industries or asset classes as they come in and out of favour with investors. Where necessary, we will seek out the requisite value-added expertise to assist with our due diligence or co-invest with other knowledgeable industry players.

While we acknowledge that truly understanding what a company does and the industry it operates in is important, we believe the most critical skill in a private equity investor is the ability to consistently identify and work with superior management teams. The whole investment adjudication process is reinforced by being able to judge people and back the top performers. Simply put, we are seasoned experts at identifying outstanding management teams and quickly assessing any deal at any stage.

Financing

The spectrum of our investments has ranged from $1 million to $50 million, but our preferred investment size is from $5 million to $15 million. From a structuring perspective and dependent on individual deal factors, we customize our investment instruments to ensure maximum goal alignment with our investees. This flexibility permits us to invest in companies at various stages of development, as well as bridge valuation gaps to ensure the correct balance of risk and return for ourselves and our investees.

Investment Criteria

We triage hundreds of deals, but are discriminating in our deal assessment. While key investment criteria will vary with every deal and depend on the particular stage of investment, strategically, we prefer opportunities exhibiting the following high level characteristics:

• Management, Management, Management: knowledgeable and experienced, complete and self-motivated, requiring minimal oversight, providing strong financial commitment, exhibiting sound organizational skills, and demonstrating operational preparedness.
  
  
• Demonstrated and Verifiable Success: proprietary technology or process, intellectual property, trade mark, brand recognition, competitive and sustainable advantage, large and growing market.
  
  
• Concise and Clear Strategy: goal alignment, well-conceived business plan, comprehensive financial forecasts, thorough presentation, sustainable cash flow, clearly defined exit strategy.

Commitment to our Partners

Once we elect to invest in a new deal, we embark upon an active management strategy to drive the process when and where it is necessary. Management teams are supported by providing our in-house consultancy and advisory expertise through our Strategic Advisory Group. Investments are continually reviewed to ensure they are meeting return expectations, we search for additional opportunities, and we manage risks as they arise. There is no specific formula to achieve these goals; experience and continuous review of specific events guide our team through this process.

• Strategic Advisory Group