Bartow Street Capital is a Division of KEMA Partners LLC (BSC) and recently attended the Association for Corporate Growth’s (ACG) Capital Connection 2018 in Atlanta. Over 1,000 companies attended the conference, and BSC interacted with a number of executives at scheduled one-on-ones, at booths, over coffee, and via phone calls. ACG is a terrific event for “being in the flow” of deals, particularly middle-market deals across industries.

Capital Connection is a networking event for the Southeast, and approximately 200 private equity groups, investment banks, and mezzanine capital funds attended. Speakers for this year’s conference included Rich McKay, President and CEO of the Atlanta Falcons, and Scott Moore, Rear Admiral of the United States Navy. Roundtable discussions covered industry topics such as fintech, health IT, security, and insurance. There were also panels that covered M&A, private equity, and leveraged finance. A few thoughts on the conference by BSC Senior Director Joshua Salisbury:

  • Private equity firms at the conference generally preferred EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) minimums of one to three million dollars, with corresponding revenue thresholds of five to 10 million dollars. This is primarily driven by the need in this segment of the market to have some cash flow to support debt.
  • Private equity firm sources of capital ranged from partner capital (individual partner wealth from prior sources), wealthy family offices, and institutional capital. Fund size tended to be in the $100 million to $500 million range.
  • All of the private equity groups we met with were liquid, and in most cases, they had invested no more than 50% of their current fund, leaving significant “dry powder” for future investments and acquisitions.
  • Most of the private equity firms deployed a platform strategy, using one acquisition as a platform and bolting (an industry term) on one or more additional acquisitions onto that platform. Each firm had one to five platforms.
  • Most of the firms, with the exception of a few, were not industry-specific focused, and many invest across the U.S. and Canada.

Bartow Street Capital has clients and investors across geographies and, unlike many of the intermediaries that were present, raises capital for funds, venture and private equity, and companies. BSC also does mergers and acquisitions work. Another differentiator is that BSC is FINRA licensed broker-dealer. Being licensed has become of paramount importance in both capital raising and mergers and acquisitions. BSC has clients in healthcare, real estate, energy, and general industrials. For more information contact BSC at 770-334-3952.

Bartow Street Capital, LLC is a subsidiary of Greenfield Advisors and is a separate legal entity from Bartow Street Capital, a division of KEMA Partners LLC.