WARREN BUFFETT’S Berkshire Hathaway is celebrated for identifying undervalued companies, buying them, holding on to them for years and reaping handsome rewards for its shareholders. Private-equity firms, by contrast, habitually deal in shorter timespans. Funds with a typical life of ten years aim to turn round troubled companies and sell them profitably within just three to five years. Recently, though, the private-equity industry has taken a page from Mr Buffett’s playbook.

Several buy-out firms have been setting up funds that intend to lock up investor funds for 20 years and to hold individual companies for at least ten. Their target net annual return of 10-12% is well below the 20% usually aimed for by ten-year funds, but they promise less volatility and lower fees—1% or so, rather than the customary 2%. Among the largest private-equity firms, Blackstone, the Carlyle Group and CVC have all set up dedicated long-term funds. The largest, Blackstone’s, has raised nearly $5 billion. Specialised upstarts such as Altas Partners of Toronto, which raised $1 billion for its first fund in the spring, are also getting in on the act.

Private-equity houses are establishing these funds mainly because their clients have an appetite for them. With interest rates at rock-bottom, investors are keen to find assets that can offer decent returns. Sovereign-wealth funds, which can invest for indefinite periods, are happy to accept long-term funds’ illiquidity. Endowments, too, are locking up money for longer.

Creating long-term funds is not simple. Ludovic Phalippou, from Said Business School at Oxford University, says that getting fee and incentive structures right can be “very tricky”. Fees, typically fixed for the life of a fund, may look reasonable at first but prove wrong later. Low fees may lure investors but give private-equity firms insufficient incentives to manage the investments diligently; high fees could allow firms to siphon off most of investors’ returns. In quick turnarounds, new managers are usually brought in with the promise of juicy bonuses linked to the sale; how, Mr Phalippou asks, could that be done with a 20-year horizon?

Some have concerns about conflicts of interest. One worried investor fears that large private-equity firms might earmark promising companies for their short-term funds—which remain their core business—leaving only mediocre ones for the new long-term funds.

Small, long-term specialists like Altas Partners should avoid that pitfall. Andrew Sheiner, Altas’s founder, says he intends to hold on to investments for up to 15 years, but to retain the flexibility to “own each business for as long as it makes sense”, so some may be sold sooner. Altas says it has attracted a lot of interest not only from investors but also from the owners and bosses of target companies, many of whom are tired, in Mr Sheiner’s estimation, of being handed from one private-equity owner to another, and instead seek a more stable, longer-term partner.

Despite their recent surge, longer-dated private-equity funds are likely to remain a niche. Last year investors committed $384 billion to the whole industry; the amount going into long-term funds is a small fraction of that. Only 5% of funds set up in 2016 have an intended lifespan longer than 12 years, according to Preqin, a data provider. The large, sophisticated investors who would be the best fit for such long-term funds can often build internal private-equity teams more cheaply. For others keen to invest in a portfolio of companies for the long term, there is another option. If even Henry Kravis, co-founder of KKR, a buy-out behemoth, has called Mr Buffett’s method “the perfect private equity model”, might it not make sense to invest directly in Berkshire Hathaway?

Altas Partners is pleased to announce that Damon Conway has joined the Firm as a Principal.

Prior to joining Altas, Damon worked at Mill Road Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut where he focused on private equity and public equity investments, and at Onex Corporation in Toronto, where he was actively involved with the acquisition and subsequent ownership of Husky Injection Molding Systems. Damon began his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions group at CIBC World Markets. Damon earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree with First Class Honours from Queen’s University and a Master of Business Administration degree with Distinction from Harvard Business School.

HIGHLIGHTS STRONG SUPPORT FOR ITS DIFFERENTIATED APPROACH TO PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTING

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Altas Partners LP, a North American private equity firm, announced today that it has completed a US$1 billion fundraise for Altas Partners Holdings LP. The fund closed at its hard cap and was oversubscribed.

Altas was established in 2012 to pursue a differentiated approach to private equity investing.  The firm seeks to invest in only one or two businesses each year, and has a longer-term outlook than many private equity firms.  The firm’s partners believe that this orientation allows Altas to make strategic and capital decisions that support attractive growth in value over time, and that its flexible time horizon, with the ability to own each business for more than ten years, provides a meaningful benefit to its investors and is greatly valued by the CEOs and executives that lead Altas’ operating companies. Altas and its partners have made three acquisitions since the firm’s establishment: NSC Minerals, St. George’s University, and Capital Vision Services.

“We are very grateful for the support we have received from the outset of the fundraising process,” said Andrew Sheiner, who founded Altas following a 17-year career with Onex Corporation.  “This capital will allow us to continue the process of building our portfolio carefully in the coming years, working with exceptional management teams and on behalf of like-minded investors.”

ALTAS DOUBLES DOWN ON LONG-TERM VISION WITH $1-BILLION FUNDRAISING

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Patience is proving to be a real virtue for private-equity firm Altas Partners LP, which raised $1-billion (U.S.) for its new fund.
The Toronto-based firm, founded by Onex veteran Andrew Sheiner in 2012, is effectively doubling its size with this latest fundraising. Altas now manages about $2-billion that it uses to invest in businesses over an uncommonly long horizon of up to 17 years.

That holding period is Mr. Sheiner’s way of spending more time thinking about owning businesses, rather than focusing on when and how to sell them. He said some funds with plans for shorter ownership stints have been “chasing their tails from the outset” in recent years.
Altas also wants to set itself apart from the swelling group of about 400 private equity firms in North America that manage more than $500-million in capital .

“It’s intensely competitive, but there are not a lot of firms that have a longer-term orientation. It is still truly a handful,” said Mr. Sheiner. The fund was oversubscribed in this latest round, exceeding fundraising goals to hit its $1-billion cap.

Altas limits itself to just one or two major purchases a year. It also likes to keep debt levels lower than average to ensure its businesses can weather downturns. The firm targets equity investments of about $150-million to $600-million, partnering with other institutional investors on larger deals. That means the $1-billion it has raised will be good for three or four deals, Mr. Sheiner said.

Even outside of Altas, average holding periods for private-equity investments edged up in recent years as some firms needed extra time to clean up after the crisis, and others were forced to wait longer for acceptable returns on assets bought at high multiples post-crisis.

That began to reverse last year as high asset valuations encouraged more PE funds to head toward the exit and clear out their inventory of older assets. Median holding periods for investments owned by private-equity firms dropped to 4.9 years in 2015, from 5.8 a year earlier, according to a report from private-equity giant Bain & Co.

Altas is looking to invest in businesses that will be important and relevant in another decade. “It’s actually a very tough filter,” Mr. Sheiner said. Investing in media or technology is typically off the table.

The first $1-billion was primarily spread between three investments. First was NSC Minerals, provider of salt for de-icing roads and for agricultural applications. Then came a hub for international medical students with the purchase of St. George’s University in Grenada. Most recently, the firm bought Virginia-based Capital Vision Services, which provides support services to independent optometrists under the brand name MyEyeDr. These deals were done with partners, including institutional investors such as pension funds.

With those transactions successfully closed, Altas set out to raise more committed capital about a year ago, bringing in a mix of existing and new investors to back its strategy of owning businesses over the longer term, typically for at least 10 years. The firm will participate in auctions under some circumstances, but prefers to go after opportunities where it can build relationships with owners and management teams looking for particular solutions.

In the case of Capital Vision, the business was owned by another private-equity firm that was looking to exit. The company’s founder wanted to buy the business alongside a partner that could stick around, Mr. Sheiner said.

The next step for Altas will be to staff up – by the end of the year Mr. Sheiner plans to add three investment professionals to the team of eight already in Toronto.

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JACQUELINE NELSON, THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Fund can hold investments much longer than the industry standard

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Altas Partners, a four-year-old private equity firm based in Toronto, has raised $1 billion for a fund that can hold investments much longer than the industry standard.

Altas is the first of several firms pitching long-lived vehicles to wrap up its fund as the private-equity industry begins to experiment with breaking standard investment time limits. Some of the world’s largest firms, including Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group, also are raising vehicles that exceed the typical five-year hold period for individual investments and 10-year fund life.

But Altas Partners, founded in 2012 by former Onex Corp. executive Andrew Sheiner, has beaten them to the finish line. The firm closed its debut vehicle in about a year and exceeded the initial $600 million goal to hit the fund’s upper limit, also referred to as the hard cap. Altas Partners Holdings LP closed on April 30 and was raised with the help of placement agent Park Hill Group LLC.

Altas’s fund is unusual in three ways. It gives the firm the option to own each company it invests in for up to 17 years, charges management fees on the money it has actually invested rather than the entire pool it raised and concentrates an unusually large share of the fund’s capital in each deal.

The desire to start a fund like this led Mr. Sheiner to strike out on his own after a 17-year career with the Toronto-based Onex. Onex’s investment in Sky Chefs, which it held for 15 years and built into the largest airline caterer in the world, is a model for the type of long-term investment he hopes to make, he said.

“With some businesses under the traditional private-equity model, there is pressure to sell before it’s time,” Mr. Sheiner said. “Great businesses are hard to find, and if you’re fortunate enough to own one, it’s tragic to have to sell for structural reasons.”

Although relatively new, longer-term funds are finding traction with institutional investors. Blackstone Group’s long-life fund collected $670 million in the first quarter, and the firm expects it to exceed its $5 billion target. Carlyle has raised around $3 billion for a 20-year fund and may collect more, Co-Chief Executive David Rubenstein said on a recent earnings call.

Altas’s strategy differs from those of its larger peers. While Blackstone has said it wants to make safer, lower-return investments that it will hold for a long time, Altas will aim for typical private-equity returns and isn’t specifically pursuing long-term deals. It may sell some companies within just a few years but has the flexibility to hold them as long as necessary, Mr. Sheiner said.

The approach is designed in part to appeal to business owners and managers. Sponsor-to-sponsor deals, when one private-equity firm sells a business to another, make up a steadily increasing percentage of private-equity exits, and some business owners are eager to get off the treadmill, Mr. Sheiner said.

“So many [businesses] are on their second or third private-equity owner that the notion of having a more stable, longer-term capital partner is really appealing to them,” he said.

With a longer investment horizon, Altas will invest deliberately, making three to five investments total from the new fund. It hopes to deploy $150 million to $500 million at a time in one or two deals a year, Mr. Sheiner said.

Altas already has invested in deals totaling about $1 billion of invested capital, relying partly on capital raised before launching its fund. The firm funded at least part of its most recent deal, Capital Vision Services, a Virginia-based optometry practices management platform, out of the new fund. Previously, it invested in St. George’s University, a medical school in Grenada, and NSC Minerals, a Canadian company that makes salt for deicing roads.

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CHRIS CUMMING, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

ALTAS AND CDPQ INVEST ALONGSIDE MANAGEMENT TO SUPPORT CONTINUED GROWTH

Capital Vision Services, LP (“CVS”), which provides management services to MyEyeDr. O.D. (“MyEyeDr.”) optometry practices, today announced that it has received an equity investment from a group led by Altas Partners (“Altas”) and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (“CDPQ”). Altas and CDPQ are investing in partnership with CVS’ Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Sue Downes and other members of management who will continue leading the company in their current roles. Joining the investor group are several leading institutional and private investors, including Andell Inc. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2001 by Ms. Downes and Robert Samit, O.D., CVS focuses on supporting affiliated, independent MyEyeDr. optometrists and their practices with a complete array of financial, marketing, human resources and accounting services, along with managed care credentialing and claims processing. MyEyeDr. practices offer patients exceptional vision care services, a wide selection of prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses, and standard and specialty contact lenses. CVS has grown from managing a single practice in the Washington D.C. metro area to managing 165 optometry practice locations in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington D.C. MyEyeDr. affiliated practices have grown steadily through new location openings and collaborative acquisitions, and today have nearly 2,000 employees serving approximately 1.8 million active patients throughout the United States.

“This news is about growth and opportunity and underscores the success of CVS to-date, the tremendous talent we have at every level of the organization, and our bright future,” said Ms. Downes. “I am thrilled to partner with Altas and CDPQ as we continue to grow CVS, support the MyEyeDr. optometrists, and offer MyEyeDr. patients high-quality service and care that they greatly value. Altas and CDPQ are long-term investors who share our ownership philosophy and value our passion for helping patients. We are excited to build on the success of the organization together in the coming years. As our company grows, we will stay focused on what we do best – meeting all patients’ full-service vision care needs through a doctor-driven model. Also, we thank our original investors, Monitor Clipper and Charlesbank, for their many years of support that helped drive the initial expansion of the business, and in particular thanks to Charles Yoon who has been a great partner and source of guidance.”

David Sheffer, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at CVS, said, “We appreciate Altas and CDPQ’s confidence in CVS and our affiliated MyEyeDr. optometry practices. This new investment underscores the strength of CVS’ financial position and market leadership, providing further capital as we pursue acquisitions and bring more outstanding optometrists into the MyEyeDr. family of affiliated practices around the country.”

Scott Werry, a Partner at Altas, commented, “Under Sue’s leadership, CVS has developed into a world-class organization that preserves and supports a doctor-driven model while delivering both high-quality care and a great selection of products and services to nearly 2 million patients. We believe the company has tremendous opportunities for continued success. Consistent with our investment philosophy, we bring a long-term outlook to supporting the company, and we look forward to working collaboratively with Sue and the talented team at CVS in the years ahead.”

“With this investment, CDPQ contributes to the further expansion of a company that has made a name for itself in its sector over the past 15 years with a distinctive business model,” added Andreas Beroutsos, Executive Vice President, Private Equity and Infrastructure, of CDPQ. “From a long-term investment standpoint, CDPQ’s contribution will enable the company to carry out its growth plan.”

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ABOUT CAPITAL VISION SERVICES, LP

Founded in 2001, Capital Vision Services, which provides management services to full-service optometry practices, is a market leader. Its affiliated MyEyeDr. practices offer patients exceptional full-service vision care, a wide selection of prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses, and standard and specialty contact lenses. Capital Vision Services provides affiliated, independent optometrists with a complete array of financial, marketing, human resources and accounting services, along with managed care credentialing and claims processing. The company has grown from managing a single practice in the Washington D.C metro area in 2001 to managing 165 locations in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington D.C. MyEyeDr. practices have grown steadily through new location openings and collaborative acquisitions, and have nearly 2,000 employees serving approximately 1.8 million active patients throughout the United States.

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ABOUT ALTAS PARTNERS

Altas Partners is an investment firm with a long-term orientation focused on acquiring significant interests in high-quality, market-leading businesses in partnership with outstanding management teams. Key elements of Altas’ approach include prudent capital structures, active ownership through strategic and operational support and an emphasis on sustainable value creation. Altas strives to deliver outstanding investment returns for its partners. Altas is led by seasoned private equity professionals and experienced operating executives. For more information, please visit www.altas.com.

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ABOUT CDPQ

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As of June 30, 2015, it held $240.8 billion in net assets. As one of Canada’s leading institutional fund managers, CDPQ, which marks its 50th anniversary this year, invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure and real estate. For more information: www.cdpq.com.

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Media Contacts:

Andrew Cole/Julie Rudnick
Sard Verbinnen & Co
212-687-8080

Adhering to its game plan, which calls for one or two new deals a year, Altas Partners has secured its third private equity investment.

Founded by Andrew Sheiner, who spent 17 years at Onex, the Toronto-based firm was set up in 2012 as a longer-term private equity player looking to write equity cheques of between $100-million and $500-million a transaction.

Instead of sticking to the traditional private equity script, which calls for portfolio companies to be sold within five to seven years, Altas is happy to be a strategic partner and invest for longer. The hope is that this differentiation will set the firm apart.

Altas is also taking its time with deals. Instead of piling into new investments, Mr. Sheiner has stressed patience and would rather tack on one or two annually.

The latest deal, announced Monday, is for Capital Vision Services, a Virginia-based company that provides management services to MyEyeDr. CVS, as it is known, offers back office functions, such as finance, human resources and accounting services to a patchwork of independent optometrists.

The deal follows Altas’s recent investments in NSC Minerals, which provides salt for road de-icing and agricultural applications, and in St. George’s University in Grenada, which offers medical degrees that are applicable in the United States.

Although Altas is still in its infancy, its management team is well-connected, with work history at places such as Onex and Providence Equity Partners, and has relationships with established private equity players. These connections are paying off, helping Altas bring in big players to co-invest in its deals.

The latest, for CVS, is being inked alongside the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Last year Altas teamed up with OPSEU Pension Trust (OPTrust), the pension plan for Ontario public sector employees, for its investment in St. George’s.

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TIM KILADZE, THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Katie brings tremendous executive and international leadership experience to the Board. She joins Yves de Balmann, Tony Bowe, John Francis, Andrew Hauptman and Andrew Dunn as advisors to the Firm.

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ABOUT MS. TAYLOR

Kathleen (Katie) Taylor is Chair of the Board of RBC. She has served on the RBC board since 2001, where she has chaired the Human Resources and Corporate Governance Committees, and served on the Audit and Risk Committees. She is also Chair of the Board of the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Hospital for Sick Children. Ms. Taylor is a director of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, where she serves on the Audit and Human Resources Committees, and a director of the Adecco Group, where she serves on the Audit Committee.

Ms. Taylor is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts where she held a number of senior leadership roles during her 24-year career with the company. Prior to becoming CEO in 2010, she served as President and Chief Operating Officer and President, Worldwide Business Operations. She was instrumental in establishing the firm’s global portfolio of luxury properties and ensuring the brand’s international success.

Ms. Taylor received a Master of Business Administration degree from Schulich School of Business, a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Toronto. She has received an honorary Doctor of Laws from York University, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Mount Saint Vincent University, the Schulich School of Business Award for Outstanding Executive Leadership and the inaugural Medal for Career Achievement from the Hennick Centre for Business and Law.

Ms. Taylor is Chair of the Principal’s International Advisory Board of McGill University, a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Schulich School of Business of York University, and a member of the C.D. Howe Institute’s National Council.

Imagine studying at a university located on a lush Caribbean island. You attend classes and mingle with the other students on a campus nestled in a sun-drenched peninsula overlooking an expanse of brilliant blue sea.

That pretty much describes St. George’s University (SGU), a private Grenada-based post-secondary institution that trains doctors to work in healthcare systems around the world.

Founded in 1976 and led by chancellor Dr. Charles Modica, the school is international in scope, drawing students and faculty from 140 countries, and operating a clinical training program that is affiliated with more than 70 hospitals and clinical centres.

A couple of weeks ago, SGU was the focus of a major control-stake transaction involving an investor group led by Canadian private equity firm Altas Partners and a fund advised by Baring Private Equity Asia. Completed in partnership with Modica and SGU’s management team, the transaction has been estimated at US$750 million.

SGU is the second deal done by Altas since its launch in 2012 by former Onex Corp Managing Director Andrew Sheiner. It marks an important step for a firm that has sought to blaze a new path in PE dealmaking.

Altas was conceived by Sheiner to invest selectively—writing equity cheques of between $100 million and $500 million in one or two opportunities a year—and hold assets long enough to produce maximum value. Its horizons go well beyond those of most buyout firms, which typically sell companies within three to five years. Altas aims to invest more flexibly, whatever the amount of time, whatever the circumstances, to achieve higher multiples on its invested capital.

How does this investment thesis apply to the idyllically located SGU? I addressed this question to Sheiner and Partner Scott Werry, who was Altas’ point man on the deal.

“In general, we want to invest in businesses that are hard to replicate and possess a clear natural advantage,” said Sheiner. “They should be high quality, market-leading companies that 10 years from now will be just as important, just as relevant and as highly profitable.”

“That’s a really high bar,” Sheiner observed, but it is one he said he believes has been met by SGU. “What Charles and his team have built at St. George’s over nearly four decades is very hard to replicate,” he said. “There is no risk of obsolescence.”

Werry, who joined Altas from Providence Equity Partners in 2013, agreed.

“As a premiere international medical school, St. George’s is a really good fit for us,” he said.

Werry noted that SGU has since inception been responsible for “superior student outcomes,” turning out more than 14,000 graduates who have practiced as physicians, scientists and healthcare professionals in more than 50 countries. That record has translated into solid and sustainable financial performance: “St. George’s has a compelling free cash flow profile,” he said.

The school’s future prospects may be even better. One of its specialities is training primary care providers, an occupation that is in high demand—last year, the World Health Organization reported the global shortage of primary care and other skilled healthcare professionals currently stands at 7.2 million. That number is expected to reach 12.9 million by 2035.

Primary care shortages are a particular concern in the U.S. healthcare delivery system, which is where most SGU-educated doctors eventually practice. SGU reported in June that during the past three years it has placed more physicians into first-year U.S. residency positions than any other medical school.

SGU also found a fit with Altas and its consortium. Introduced in February 2013, Werry said Modica was searching for a partner for “the next chapter of the family-owned business.”

“St. George’s required a stable capital base that would give it continuing opportunities to improve the school and undertake global expansion,” he said. It needed a value-adding partner—one that could help increase resources for academic development, course offerings and student services, and build additional networks and strategic relationships.

Sheiner said alignment was found because instead of looking for a “quick exit,” Altas was prepared to be “a long-term steward of the business.” It also offered SGU strong operational capabilities and “a responsible capital structure, with a more conservative use of leverage.”

“Inappropriate capital structures are the existential risk of private equity,” he said.

Baring also brought value to the table. A pan-Asia private equity firm with headquarters in Hong Kong, Baring specializes in making investments in the for-profit education sector. Its portfolio includes a variety of K-12, post-secondary and educational content companies.

Altas led a group of several institutional investors in the SGU transaction. Among them was OPSEU Pension Trust (OPTrust), manager of the $16 billion retirement plan of Ontario’s public employees.

Sandra Bosela, co-head of OPTrust Private Markets Group (PMG) and responsible for its global PE activity, told peHUB Canada that merit was seen in the investment because of SGU’s “strong reputation and global strategic partnerships” and its “crucial role in responding to emerging healthcare trends.”

SGU is OPTrust PMG’s 12th direct deal in the last two years, and the second of three expected to close this summer. In July, it joined with Imperial Capital Group in making a $121 million investment in Dental Corp, a group of Canadian dental care clinics.

Bosela said OPTrust PMG has “a flexible capital approach that can support a range of market strategies, structures and horizons.” Its role in the SGU transaction reflects “an opportunity that calls for greater flexibility and a longer horizon in order to provide capital stability and support for growth.”

“Strong global partnerships are an essential pillar of our private equity strategy,” she said. “We aim to work shoulder-to-shoulder with experienced, like-minded investment partners. Alignment of interests is key to all of our deals, but it is especially important when we are taking a longer-term approach.”

OPTrust is part of growing community of institutional investors that are looking to source more PE deals directly but that lack the scale of a mega-sized pension fund organization to achieve this objective on their own.

It was these potential partners that Sheiner had in mind when he founded Altas. Since then, strategic collaborations have been forged with a core group of institutional investors, including pension funds, insurance companies and family offices.

Sheiner said he believes Altas’ partners have signed on because they are “keenly interested in a unique investment model consisting of deeper relationships, truer alignment and real engagement.” Giving it continuous access to a large pool of co-investment dollars, they have allowed Altas “to deploy a lot of capital in a short time to some very attractive and bespoke opportunities.”

Altas’ debut transaction was last October’s buy of NSC Minerals, a Saskatoon-based provider of salt for highway de-icing, industrial and agricultural applications. NSC was acquired from U.S. private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital, which bought it in 2011 from Canada’s TriWest Capital Partners.

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KIRK FALCONER, PE HUB