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ILEX Private Equity
"Our role is to marshal
the appropriate financial, strategic and human resources to take each
company in our portfolio to the next level. Our entrepreneurs and
executives lead their companies, but we help drive critical strategic
actions at key inflection points." |
Approach
Ilex invests in fundamentally sound businesses that face operational, financial or business stress. We provide the capital necessary to strengthen the business; we work with management to design and implement business improvement programs; and we provide the financial, strategic and operational support needed to improve profitability. Our goal in every acquisition is to build long-term enterprise value by stabilizing cash flow and improving every aspect of the companies we own.
Strong Business Franchises. We seek defensible business franchises faced with operational, financial or ownership problems that we can identify and solve. Typically, these businesses maintain a strong underlying brand, franchise or market position or they provide value-added products or services to a blue chip customer base. We are particularly attracted to companies that offer significant opportunities to improve operating costs and markets that face substantial business change, foreign competition or industry consolidation.
Continuous Business Improvement. We work closely with management to develop and implement a robust program to improve cash flow and profitability within 12 to 24 months of Ilex's investment. These programs often include one or more of the following initiatives:
- Building trade credit and improving working capital management
- Consolidating sales, purchasing and office functions
- Consolidating suppliers and improving purchasing terms
- Consolidating operations, production facilities or product lines
- Evaluating and upgrading management and supervisory resources
- Renegotiating labor agreements to reduce labor costs
- Implementing cost accounting tools to revise pricing and product mix
- Executing high-return capital expenditure or expansion projects
- Implementing employee success sharing programs
- Upgrading employee safety and quality control systems
- Implementing new sourcing, manufacturing and sales strategies
| Realizing Investment Returns. Ilex is a financial buyer, and we produce financial returns for our investors by selling our portfolio companies at a prudent point in our ownership. We will own portfolio companies as long as we can add value through business improvement or strategic acquisitions - a period that can range from three to seven years. We typically sell our companies to financial or industrial buyers. |
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