Gordian Group 2018 Update
To Our Colleagues and Friends of the Firm,
As we come out of the summer in 2018, our 30th year as a firm, we would like to take a moment to share some highlights from the past year.
We continue to deliver great results for our clients in our core business of providing unconflicted advice to boards (both public and private) and private equity firms, raising capital, effecting financial restructurings and merger transactions, providing opinions and rendering expert opinion/litigation support services in complex matters.
The sectors in which we see the most deal flow include aerospace, energy, healthcare and telecom / media, but our book of business is broadly based across industry lines. We also continue our work on complex financial institution and insurance product remediation.
Certain highlights and new initiatives we want to share with you include:
Unique Expertise Advising Boards and Shareholders
We have continued to build upon our strong track record in helping private equity firms and their portfolio companies navigate through challenging situations, with clients benefiting from our lack of creditor conflicts. Work in this area spans several industries, including, among others: aerospace; oil and gas midstream and E&P; energy services; industrial equipment & engineering; healthcare services and software; information and marketing services; and TMT. Over the past year, we have also been fortunate to see a number of our private equity clients reap the fruits of our efforts, monetizing the equity they retained during the prior restructurings at favorably valuations.
Financial Institutions / Structured Finance
As many of you know, Gordian has over the last decade developed a leading practice in financial institution restructuring, including with respect to structured finance and complex securitizations, having advised regulators and other constituencies in several large and prominent credit situations. In the past year, Gordian delivered critical expert testimony on behalf of the regulator in connection with Ambac Assurance Corporation’s long-awaited emergence from rehabilitation and is now actively seeking new opportunities to leverage its expertise in this area.
Equity Management
In early 2017, we formed Gordian Equity Management Services, LLC (“GEMS”), which is spearheaded by Paul Laud.
GEMS provides asset management (“GP for hire”) services to private equity firms, with a special focus on turnkey solutions for revitalizing and monetizing underperforming, “exit-resistant” private equity assets. Click here for our 2-page (downloadable) summary.
Principal Activities
Gordian is currently exploring principal opportunities through two vehicles, Carpathia and Gordian Group Asset Management.
While in its early stages, Carpathia intends to target situations in which fatigued private equity funds and their portfolio companies could benefit from capital to fund recapitalizations and other transformational initiatives. Gordian, through GEMS, is currently sourcing the capital to further this effort.
Gordian Group Asset Management is also raising capital, in order to leverage our unique expertise in advantaging junior securities in tough capital structure situations. We have other opportunities in the pipeline as well, which we hope to share with you down the road.
We also are considering raising more money in the winery space, potentially in conjunction with our affiliate Bacchus Capital.
We welcome sharing further thoughts if you are interested.
Expert Witness
During 2016, we formed a subsidiary with veteran consulting executive, Kelly T. Hickel, Co-Founder and President, called Expert Witness Consulting Services (“EWCS”) as an extension of our long-established expert witness/litigation support services, focused on Expert Consulting and Expert Litigation Support, especially in Finance, Healthcare and Intellectual Property. We have assembled a world-class team of Experts, both internal and as affiliates, who can meet your needs for Expert Consulting or an Expert Witness to support your Litigation or Arbitration. These Experts have been added to the EWCS website and we have prepared an overview of the Experts and their areas of Expertise. (Click Here)
Awards
Gordian received numerous awards in the last year:
- 2017 M&A Deal of the Year ($100MM-$200MM) by The M&A Advisor for the Restructuring and Sale of Trans Energy, Inc
- 2017 Distressed Deal of the Year (Over $100MM to $250MM) by The M&A Advisor for the Acquisition of Trans Energy, Inc. by EQT Corporation
- Selected as one of the Outstanding Investment Banking Firms of 2017 by Turnarounds & Workouts Magazine
- Awarded for its nomination of Alphatec for Turnarounds & Workouts’ Successful Restructurings of 2016
- The M&A Advisor named Gordian “Boutique Investment Bank of the Year” for 2016 (for the fifth time in seven years).
- 2016 “Out-of-Court Restructuring Deal of the Year” (Over $100MM) by the The M&A Advisor for the Restructuring and Sale of Trans Energy, Inc. and “Cross-Border Restructuring Deal of the Year” (Under $1B) for the Restructuring of Alphatec.
Conclusion
We hope all of our friends had a wonderful first half of 2018, and that we all continue to see increasing opportunities in this rising interest rate environment.
Call on us any time if we can be of assistance in any way, including introductions we may be in a position to provide.
Kind Regards,
The Partners of Gordian Group
Gordian Group
950 Third Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10022
t212.486.3600 f212.486.3616
www.gordiangroup.com