Next generation private equity…

Future-forward Investing

 

Mont & Company is a private equity firm focused on investing in companies valued between $10-$75mm in the Lower Middle Market.  We partner with stakeholders to drive operational excellence and sustainable growth.  We believe developing and implementing right-sized ESG initiatives can increase efficiencies, lower operating costs, and prepare companies for successful exit outcomes in an increasingly regulated and globally-focused marketplace.

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What We Look For

Mont & Company has experience creating and executing solutions for middle market companies, ideally where ESG practices have not been optimized. ESG areas are often a low priority for founder/ family-owned businesses, or are perceived as too costly. Opportunities also exist for ESG initiatives to increase demand for a company’s products or services.

Investment Focus

  • Investment Size

    Platform Companies: EBITDA between $2.5-$25.0mm

    Add-on acquisitions: EBITDA >$1.0mm

  • Transaction Types

    Majority recapitalization

    Management buyouts

    Family and Founder owned companies

    Corporate divestitures, spin-offs, carve-outs

  • Industry Specialties

    Consumer Products & Services

    Technology

    Environmental Services

    Construction & Building Materials

    Essential and Mission Critical Businesses

    Financial Services

    Transportation & Logistics

“Whether the cause is new disclosure requirements, stakeholder scrutiny, climate risk, or green growth opportunities, at some point, ESG issues will bring leaders to the heart of their strategy—their blueprint for where and how to compete that reflects their view of the future, the opportunities and threats they face, and the capabilities they can bring to bear.”

— Are You Ready for the ESG Revolution? PWC Global 2021

Why Partner with Mont & Company?

 

Partners are Everything.

Strength and Resilience in Diverse Management Teams and Business Owners

Often the best way to minimize the broader risks associated with smaller companies is for investors to partner with strong management teams and ensure incentive alignment through rollover equity and creative compensation plans.  We support our management teams with these incentives and offer continuing career development opportunities as well.  We believe the most robust and resilient management teams are inclusive groups that also represent many types of diverse populations.  This is why M&C strives to increase the number of management opportunities available within our portfolio to disadvantaged and minority populations.   

We Walk the Walk.

Building Equity and Adding Value Through ESG and Impact Investing

Even with the most capable management team in place, issues will undoubtedly arise in the course of growing a business, which is why we believe private equity firms holding themselves as ESG investors should have a strong ESG focus with domain expertise. Not only can ESG specialization provide a major advantage during the acquisition process, but M&C’s existing knowledge base and contact networks can be leveraged to grow the company and ultimately realize a profitable exit.

Right-sized Investments.

We Love the Growth Potential in the Lower Middle Market...and So Will You

We believe that an exclusive focus on the LMM is the best way to address any risk-return concerns. For example, it is unlikely that even the best exit from a LMM company would contribute enough to the returns of a larger middle market private equity fund to make the investment worthwhile. Firms targeting the LMM should have fund sizes small enough to deploy a meaningful amount of capital into each acquisition, yet large enough to be flexible on transaction structure and to support a company’s growth plans.


The Future is Now.

Investing in Right-fit and Right-sized Technologies for Value Creation

Technology has impacted business from the micro caps to the largest publicly traded companies and in every industry.  Our team at M&C has deep technology experience and believes there is another great opportunity to implement technology within our portfolio to add efficiencies, lower costs, and to reach the consumer.  We have identified pragmatic initiatives in what we call “Blue-Collar Tech” with industries such as Transportation & Logistics within our target companies as well as more sophisticated, innovative artificial intelligence (AI) platforms that would give our portfolio companies the ability to build or create a competitive advantage within their market.  This is a key attribute we look at when screening our opportunities.


Industry News

  • Factors Fueling Demand

    Are you ready for the ESG revolution? PWC Global June 2021

    Now more than any time in history, there is more attention, focus, and demand for Environmental, Social and Governance or ESG-related investments. The European Union has already implemented guidelines for evaluating the overall ESG health of companies and global corporations have followed suit by implementing programs and initiatives to improve ESG-related functional areas. What are companies like PWC doing to prepare their U.S. clients for a future with more structured and standardized compliance requirements?

    Read this white paper by PWC’s Peter Gassmann, Casey Herman, and Colm Kelly on what companies can expect in the near future as ESG requirements become standard practice.

    Full article

  • BlackRock on ESG

    Larry Fink’s 2021 letter to CEO’s

    Institutional investors have taken note of this groundswell and are scrambling to find and provide investment products to satisfy this demand yet there continues to be a dearth of available opportunities. Additionally, the inter-generational transfer of wealth that will take place in the next decade has large asset managers such as BlackRock suddenly shifting their focus to ESG investing and making outreach to these younger generations.

    Read on and find out more about investment giant BlackRock’s commitment is to the future of ESG and why it matters.

    Full Article

  • ESG and Millennials

    Millennials Are Inclined Toward ESG: Here’s Why Nasdaq March 2020

    The United States is playing catch up and this urgency has been fueled by the huge increase in demand from the younger generations. Millennials and Generation-Z consistently prioritize ESG-related issues at the very top of their list of concerns and are trying to invest money into companies that appeal to their value set. There is a huge transfer of wealth anticipated in the next decade (read the article from BlackRock’s Larry Fink 2021) as well as that group making up an increasing number of consumers and investors as they move into their prime earning years.

    If you haven’t been keeping up with what the largest transfer of wealth in our nation’s history means for companies, read this article by Zach’s Equity Research.

    full article

  • ESG and Private Equity

    ACG NY 8th Annual Women of Leadership 2021 “Portfolios with a Purpose-ESG Investing”

    TMG sees the power in developing a reputation within the Lower Middle Market private equity segment as being intelligent investors that focus on ESG themes by finding quality companies with large potential for us to unlock value by focusing on their ESG health.

    The face of investment is changing, and with that change comes new values and evolving priorities in assessing the strength of a portfolio. Watch this interview between Troutman Pepper Partner Nilu Shaikh and The Carlyle Group Global Head of Impact Megan Starr from the 2021 NY ACG conference.

    full video