Transom Capital Group

Operations come first at this private equity firm, which was founded in 2008 in Los Angeles and invests in middle-market companies. Its thesis is that portfolio companies are best supported by specialists who once ran the sort of company it hopes to improve.

The operating team

Over a third of the firm is a dedicated group of seasoned operators with real-world experience and long tenure. The firm says its practitioners have lived their expertise rather than studied it, and that deep functional skill lets it work on value regardless of industry. Its M and A and operations teams work together across the full lifecycle of an investment, with accountability and collaboration, and the firm says its goal is companies of higher quality and better management whose valuations rise markedly.

The ARMOR process

A systematic method called ARMOR is the firm's value creation process, and it says the approach produces positive outcomes predictably and consistently. The firm also stresses giving employees authority from the bottom up as essential to forward momentum.

Complexity as the starting point

The site argues that the firm sees untapped value amid complexity. Over nearly twenty years it says it sharpened a strategy aimed at situational and operational complexity, with a goal of dramatic improvement in company quality. It says its results come from multiple expansion and earnings growth with less reliance on financial engineering. Its method rests on functional pattern recognition, access to capital, and the process combined with management's industry knowledge to improve efficiency, top-line growth and culture.

Examples of companies

Companies shown on the site include a specialty distributor whose technical products go to semiconductor, industrial, microelectronic and sanitary customers, and a provider of end-to-end video technology with security cameras, management and recording systems and software. A flooring and tile business formed from four market-leading distributors is presented as another example.

Transom Capital Group is a private equity firm based in Los Angeles that invests in middle-market companies. It was founded in 2008 and puts operations at the centre of its approach. The team is made up of practitioners who have held leadership roles in the kinds of businesses the firm aims to transform.

What Transom Capital Group offers

• Middle-market investment: private equity in mid-sized companies.
• Operating expertise: functional specialists who have run businesses themselves.
• ARMOR process: A systematic value creation process that the firm applies to its portfolio.
• Management partnership: collaboration with management teams to turn potential into value.

Clients

Management teams of middle-market businesses that could benefit from operational change. The firm assesses each opportunity on its potential for value creation and fit with its investment criteria.

Key facts

• Based in: Los Angeles, California
• Founded: 2008
• Strategy: Operations-focused private equity