Source Talks is a series where we discuss deal origination with expert PE and M&A pros. On this episode, Brice Baradel of Highview Capital discusses their evergreen fund structure and how they use technology to inform travel planning and prioritize the most relevant bankers to meet with.
Tell us about Highview Capital and the kind of investing that you do there.
Highview Capital is an LA-based fund. We’re backed by a multi-billion dollar single-family office. We started in late 2016. That family office is our sole partner from an equity capital deployment perspective, and it’s structured as an evergreen fund. So capital is recyclable after we realize investments. And, you know, the evergreen fund structure affords us a significant amount of flexibility in terms of our scope of mandate, the ability to structure transactions creatively and how long we can hold businesses. You know, in terms of size, we’re typically investing between 25 to a hundred million of equity into businesses that typically have between five and 30 of EBITDA. We’ve been particularly active in what I call blue collar services, niche manufacturing, specialty distribution, food supply chain companies, packaging, auto aftermarket.
What role does technology play in the deal sourcing operation there?
We rely on a lot of tools to keep us connected and make sure that everyone’s in sync with all the various conversations that are going on out in the market. We also use certain tools like Sutton Place Strategies that can be a valuable resource for us as we’re planning out on visiting a particular city. Figuring out who the most relevant bankers are that are in that city that we should be seeing, helping us sort of prioritize where there might be, bankers that have a lot of relevant deals for us, but that we’re not seeing our fair share of.
So Bryce, tell us finally about a recent deal that helps, bring home your deal sourcing strategy.
A good example where we were excited about our approach to sourcing and maybe where the single family office element played a role in it was a recent investment in a company called Randall Foods. Randall is a local business here out in the LA area. They’re a further protein processor, so they work with chicken, pork, beef grown beef, and are selling into the grocery retail channel. It’s been a great investment for us since we bought the business in 2021. We’ve been very focused on augmenting the management team. So we built out an entire C-suite that really wasn’t part of the organization when we acquired it. And we’ve also embarked on transformational M&A, so we bought a business this past summer in the summer of 2022 that was almost comparable size business to the original Randall platform, but they were in the ground beef space and they were very close proximity wise to Randall. So there was a lot of synergy value in terms of the combination.
Tell us about an early job that you had which helped prepare you for your current role
My summer job in college was a little bit crazy. I was working for an organization where I was running my own business selling educational reference books door to door for all four summers during, during my college.
