international search fund conference - iese. · pdf fileboard of palamon capital partners in...

www.iese.edu/searchfund

April 24, 2015

BARCELONA

International Search Fund Conference

International Search Fund Conference3

Over the past 30 years, search funds have been very successful in the United States and Canada. As an innovative way for young entrepreneurs to run their own businesses, and a unique investment opportunity for investors, the search fund model has generated outstanding overall returns. As a result, it is now growing in popularity in Europe and other parts of the world. The International Search Fund Conference 2015 will be the first of its kind to be held in Europe. It aims to bring together search fund entrepreneurs

and investors involved in around 20 search funds in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. The conference is also designed to introduce the funded search model to aspiring entrepreneurs and investors interested in a new entrepreneurial investment model. This event will also create opportunities for search fund entrepreneurs to meet investors, and for investors to meet each other and different international searchers. It will be an ideal occasion for participants to learn more about searches outside the United States and Canada.

INTRODUCTION

A search fund is an investment vehicle in which investors provide capital to an entrepreneur or a pair of entrepreneurs in partnership to fund them while they search for a privately-held company to acquire. Once the entrepreneur has an agreement to purchase a target company and a second round of capital is raised to fund the acquisition, the original investors have the option to invest in the acquisition. Following the acquisition, the searcher becomes the CEO of the business and earns a significant shareholding in the company. A board of directors that includes a small number of the investors is also established.

IESE Business School4

10:30-11:30 REGISTRATION South Campus, Foyer

11:00-11:30 PRIMER

What Is a Search Fund?For those who are new to the search fund model, learn the basics: what a search fund is and how it works.

Chair: ROB JOHNSON

South Campus, Classroom G-302

11:30-12:40 PANEL DISCUSSION

The Search Fund ModelLearn more about the way search funds work and then hear about search results from the people who are tracking search funds around the world.

Guest speakers: SARA ROSENTHAL (GSB, Stanford), LENKA KOLAROVA (IESE Business School), SANDRO MINA (U.S., Investor), JÜRGEN RILLING (Germany, Investor)

Chair: JONATHAN MOULES, Financial Times

South Campus Auditorium

12:40-14:10 NETWORKING LUNCH North Campus, Dining Room


What Has Made the Search Fund Model Successful? Hear investor and searcher insights about the key factors that have contributed to successful searches.

Panel: Serial search fund investors COLEY ANDREWS (U.S.), WILL THORNDIKE (U.S.), BILL EGAN (U.S.)

Chair: ROB JOHNSON



Challenges for International Search Funds Learn about the challenges faced by entrepreneurs who have done, and are doing, searches outside the United States and Canada.

Panel: Searchers JANE KAGGWA (Kenya), MARC BARTOMEUS (Spain), TILL BOSSERT (Switzerland), ANISH PATEL (U.K.)

Chair: PETER KELLY


16:30-17:00 COFFEE BREAK South Campus, F Building


Now That I’m a CEO, What Do I Do? Find out how investors as well as searchers have contributed to the search process and to the success of acquired companies. (It’s not what you might think!)

Panel: Searcher CEOs RITZ STEYTLER (U.K.), ALEXANDER KIRN (Germany), MARIO SICILIA (Mexico), JOSE STELLA (Puerto Rico)

Chair: SIMON WEBSTER


18:10-20:00 NETWORKING COCKTAIL RECEPTION North Campus Terrace

SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, APRIL 24


SEARCH COMPANY SEARCHER(S) COMPANY ACQUIRED COUNTRY

Abacus Partners RITZ STEYTLER Servebase Ltd. (now PXP)Sold to BWIN / Kalixa

United Kingdom

Arcadia Partners ASHWIN GROVER & VARUN CHANRAI searching United Kingdom

Ariol Capital Ltd. MARC BARTOMEUS Repli S.L. Spain

ARP Capital ANISH PATEL & RAJ PATEL searching United Kingdom

Atrion Partners ALEXANDER KIRN Fleet Technology GmbH Germany

Elcano Capital JOSÉ MARÍA VARA searching Spain

Hemera Partners ALBERTO PONS searching United Kingdom

Impala Holdings JANE KAGGWA AquaVita (startup) Kenya & Uganda

Kronos Kapital TOBIAS RAEBER & TILL BOSSERT Innovative Building Technology GmbH

Germany

KvS Beteiligung DENNIS KOGAN & BJÖRN VON SIEMENS S-CAPE GmbH Germany

N Capital NUÑO ARROYO searching Spain

Nusantara Partners RAY PULUNGAN & BRENDAN DOWDLE searching Indonesia

Pepper Oaks Capital MATTHIAS KNAUR Loyalty Systems GmbH Germany

Vestige Capital LLC MARIO SICILIA & JOSÉ ANTONIO FERNÁNDEZ

Bomi de México S.A. Mexico

PARTICIPATING SEARCHERS


SPEAKERS

Coley Andrews

Founding Partner, Pacific Lake Partners (United States)

Coley is a founding partner of Pacific Lake Partners, a $90 million private equity fund focused on small-cap buyouts exclusively through the search fund model. Search fund investing consists of providing search and acquisition capital to promising entrepreneurs who are recent graduates of top MBA programs. The entrepreneurs’ intent is to acquire a small, established company with revenues of $10 million to $30 million and a history of profits and growth. Since co-founding Pacific Lake, Coley has invested in over 25 search funds. Coley holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a BA from Dartmouth College.

Marc Bartomeus

CEO, Repli S.L. (Spain) Founder, Ariol Capital (Spain)

Marc is the CEO of Repli S.L., a leading distributor of plastic containers, acquired in 2014 via his Barcelona-based search fund Ariol Capital. Prior to founding Ariol Capital, Marc worked for a lower-middle-market private equity firm in Boston. Previously, he held several business development and sales management positions at Promax Electronics in Barcelona, Agilent Technologies in Stuttgart and Hewlett-Packard in Madrid. Marc holds a Degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universitat Politènica de Catalunya (UPC) and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Till Bossert

Dipl.-Wirt.-Ing, Innovative Building Technology GmbH (Germany) Co-Founder, Kronos Kapital (Switzerland)

Till is Dipl.-Wirt.-Ing. of Innovative Building Technology GmbH, acquired in 2015 via his Zurich-based search fund Kronos Kapital. The company produces temporary buildings and modular storage units. Prior to co-founding Kronos in 2013, Till worked at multinational companies such as Daimler and Robert Bosch specializing in marketing, customer service, production engineering and supply chain. Till also worked at Oliver Wyman, a management consulting group. He holds a Diploma in Industrial Engineering from Universität Karlsruhe and from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.


Bill Egan

General Partner, Alta Communications (United States)

Bill is founder and General Partner of Alta Communications and Marion Equity Partners LLC, Massachusetts-based venture capital firms. He founded Alta’s predecessor firm, Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. in 1979, and has identified and backed several of America’s leading growth companies. Prior to founding Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co., Bill was a partner at TA Associates. Bill received a Degree in Economics from Fairfield University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance.

Rob Johnson

Visiting Professor, IESE Business School (Spain)

Rob is a successful entrepreneur and Europe-based private equity investor. He is currently a partner at Delta Partners and serves on the Advisory Board of Palamon Capital Partners in London. He has served as a director of numerous private companies, including search funds and their operating companies. He co-founded, ran and sold a venture-capital-backed information company in the United States. Rob holds an MBA from the Darden School, University of Virginia. He has taught the Entrepreneurial Finance course at IESE Business School for fifteen years, prior to which he was on the faculty of London Business School for ten years.

Jane Kaggwa

CEO, AquaVita (Kenya) Founder, Impala Holdings (Kenya)

Jane is the CEO of AquaVita in Kenya, the water-purifications systems company she founded in 2014 via her Kenya-based search fund Impala Investment Holdings. Jane executed private equity investments in Africa at Emerging Capital Partners and has advised clients on mergers and acquisitions in the leveraged finance division of Citi Global Markets in New York. She also worked for Bank of America’s middle-market corporate banking division. She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor’s Degree from Northeastern University.

Peter Kelly

Lecturer in Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business (United States)

From 1993 until 2010, Peter was CEO of Pacific Pulmonary Services (PPS), a home respiratory services provider that grew during that time from 12 to 115 locations. He also previously served as CFO and COO, and was co-founder of the search fund that acquired the predecessor to PPS. Peter has prior investing experience at TA Associates, a private equity firm, where he originated investments in software and communication companies. He has served as a director of several advisory boards. Peter received a Bachelor of Arts in Science, Technology and Social Theory, a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering, and an MBA, all from Stanford University. Peter currently teaches three courses at Stanford Graduate School of Business (Entrepreneurial Acquisitions, Managing Growing Enterprises and Managerial Skills) and one course at IESE Business School (Search Funds).

Alexander Kirn

CEO, Fleet Technology GmbH (Germany) Founder, Atrion Partners (Germany)

Alexander has been an entrepreneur for almost 20 years. He founded his first company, an Internet service provider, at age 14. After selling the company, he became an investment professional at Summit Partners, where he focused on growing software-oriented companies. In 2009, he founded Atrion Partners, later re-named Fleet Technology, as a search fund to grow and expand technology-driven companies in growth markets. Since 2012, he has been CEO of INVERS (carsharing technology) and LapID (compliance software for fleets), which now have more than 60 employees. Alexander is a graduate of the University of St. Gallen and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Lenka Kolarova

Center for Entrepreneurship, IESE Business School (Spain)

Lenka tracks the international search fund activity and is the co-author of IESE’s note International Search Funds – 2013: Selected Observations. She holds an MBA from IESE Business School (2011).

Sandro Mina

Co-Managing Director, Relay Investments (United States & Canada)

Sandro Mina is co-founding Managing Director of Relay Investments in Boston, an investment firm specializing in backing search fund entrepreneurs. Prior to that, he was co-founder of the private equity firm Sverica International, where he spent


twenty years as co-founding partner. He served as CEO of Cameraworld.com, one of Sverica’s portfolio companies, and has served on numerous company boards as well as the board of the Swedish school in Boston. Sandro holds a BSc from Imperial College at the University of London, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Jonathan Moules

Business Education Correspondent, Financial Times (United Kingdom)

Jonathan Moules has been writing for the Financial Times since 1999. His first five years were spent in the newspaper’s New York bureau, where, as technology, media and telecoms news editor, he oversaw coverage of the 1990s dotcom bubble and aftermath. Since September 2005, he has focused on entrepreneurship by charting the challenges of running fast-growing companies and profiling founders. Jonathan is an Economics graduate from the University of Liverpool.

Anish Patel

Co-Managing Director, ARP Capital Partners (United Kingdom)

Prior to co-founding the search fund ARP Capital, Anish worked at Barclays Bank and LEK Consulting, where he advised senior management teams and entrepreneurs across numerous industries operating in the United Kingdom, mainland Europe, Asia and Africa. He is especially experienced in creating long-term strategic objectives, financial modeling and business forecasting, organizational design and 100-day planning activities related to acquisitions. Anish holds an MBA

from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an MA in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University.

Jürgen Rilling

Managing Director, Mirablau (Germany) Lecturer, Entrepreneurship Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Jürgen is the owner and Managing Director of Mirablau, a German investment and consulting group. Mirablau holds several private equity and venture capital investments. Before founding Mirablau in 2001, Jürgen worked with industry-leading companies such as Rodenstock and Roland Berger & Partner. He currently serves on several advisory boards. Jürgen holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering from Technische Universität München and an MBA from IESE Business School. He is a serial search fund investor and currently teaches the Entrepreneurship course at the Entrepreneurship Center at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

Sara Rosenthal

Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Stanford Graduate School of Business (United States)

Sara has been tracking search funds in the United States and Canada since 2010. She is the co-author of Stanford GSB’s note Search Funds – 2013: Selected Observations. Sara holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business (2004).

Mario Sicilia

CEO, Bomi de México S.A. (Mexico) Co-Founder, Vestige Capital (Mexico)

Mario is the CEO of Bomi de Mexico, the company acquired via his search fund Vestige Capital. Prior to co-founding Vestige Capital Mario worked at Nexxus Capital, one of Mexico’s leading private equity firms. Before joining Nexxus, Mario worked at Grupo Desc, an industrial conglomerate. During the summer of 2008, Mario worked with GP Investments, the largest PE firm in Latin America. In 2011, Mario became CEO of Bomi de México, a healthcare logistics company. He received an MBA from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Iberoamericana, where he graduated with honors.

Jose Stella

Co-CEO & Co-Founder, QMC Telecom (Brazil) Managing Partner, Ashford Venture Partners (Puerto Rico)

Jose is currently Co-CEO and Co-Founder of QMC Telecom, a wireless infrastructure provider. He is also Managing Partner at Ashford Venture Partners, a private equity group focused on micro-cap private investing, predominantly through search fund vehicles. Prior to that, he was the Co-Founder and President of VIU Media, an outdoor advertising company, until the company was sold to Lamar Advertising. Previously, Jose worked at KPMG Peat Marwick in the middle-market Mergers & Acquisitions Group. Jose graduated with a BA from Babson College and an MBA from the University of Michigan.


Ritz Steytler

CEO, Servebase/PXP (United Kingdom) Founder, Abacus Partners (United Kingdom)

In 2011, Ritz led a major growth capital investment in Servebase (later PXP) by Abacus Partners, a search fund that he founded in 2008. Ritz successfully sold PXP in 2014. Formerly a management consultant with IBM and Accenture, Ritz has over 20 years’ business and technology experience, including the leadership of technology implementation projects for some of the biggest names in retail, telecommunications and financial services. Ritz holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Computer Science from Stellenbosch University and an Executive MBA with Distinction from London Business School.

William Thorndike

Managing Director, Housatonic Partners (United States)

William founded Housatonic Partners, an investment firm, in Boston in 1994 and has been Managing Director since that time. Prior to that, William worked with T. Rowe Price Associates and Walker & Company, where he was named to the Board of Directors. William is a graduate of Harvard College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a director on several company boards in the United States and Europe, a Trustee of the Stanford Business School Trust, WGBH, the College of the Atlantic (Chair), and a founding partner at FARM, a social impact investing collaborative. He is the author of The Outsiders.

Simon Webster

Search Fund Entrepreneur & Investor (United Kingdom)

Simon learned about the search fund model while studying for his MBA at London Business School. He raised the first search fund outside the United States and Canada and acquired Rehabilitation Services Ltd. in 1995. As the CEO of RSL, he grew the business from £3.5m to £30m in sales and from £0.4m to £2.4m in EBITDA over a ten-year period. He successfully sold the business in December 2005, realizing an excellent return for investors. Simon is an active director of and investor in several companies, including search funds, and he advises current MBA graduates who are raising search funds.


CONFERENCE INFORMATION

VENUE

IESE Business SchoolAv. Pearson 21, 08034 BarcelonaTel. (+34) 93 253 42 [email protected]

LANGUAGE

The official language of the conference is English.

UPDATED INFORMATION

For updated information about the conference please visit: www.iese.edu/searchfund

ORGANIZERS

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

ROB JOHNSONVisiting ProfessorIESE Business School

PETER KELLYLecturer in Management Stanford Graduate School of Business

LENKA KOLAROVACenter for EntrepreneurshipIESE Business School

JÜRGEN RILLINGLecturer Entrepreneurship Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

SIMON WEBSTERChairmanEuropean Search Fund Association

ESTHER RIBESResearch Events UnitIESE Business School

www.iese.edu

BarcelonaAv. Pearson, 21 08034 Barcelona, Spain (+ 34) 93 253 42 00

MadridCamino del Cerro del Águila, 3 28023 Madrid, Spain(+34) 91 211 30 00

New York165 W. 57th Street New York, NY 10019-2201 USA(+1) 646 346 8850

MunichMaria-Theresia-Straße 1581675 Munich, Germany(+49) 89 24 20 97 90

Sao PauloRua Martiniano de Carvalho, 573 Bela Vista 01321001 Sao Paulo, Brazil(+55) 11 3177 8221

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