Direct Private Equity Investment Process

Patience and Perseverance

Success in direct private equity investing requires patience and perseverance. There is no short cut. This applies for business owners building an established business, investors seeking to diversify their portfolios with alternative investments, and investment managers who serve investor clients and actively seek companies that are candidates for direct private equity investment.

Balance Ventures is such an investment advisor. We have the strength, strategy, patience and perseverance necessary to succeed in direct private equity investing.

Stages in the Direct Equity Investment Process

Investors who work with Balance Ventures can expect a long-term perspective and a focus on our relationship with them in everything we do. We represent investors exclusively as their 'buy-side' investment manager in every stage of the direct equity investment process.

We use a turn-key, disciplined approach in managing the direct equity investment process, which generally unfolds in the following stages:

DEAL FLOW - full-time, active solicitation and screening of business plans of potential investment opportunities;

INVESTMENT ANALYSIS - filtering investment opportunities with disciplined criteria (desired rates of return and risk, deal structures, management team profiles, etc.);

DEAL STRUCTURE - innovative, case-specific deal structures designed to minimize legal liability and tax exposure and maximize a portfolio company's ability to grow its business and generate a superior return on the investment;

TERM SHEET/LETTER OF INTENT - negotiation of investment terms with target companies on behalf of investors;

DUE DILIGENCE - analysis of historical financial results, management assertions and representations, and extensive background checks for target company management;

COORDINATION OF DEAL CLOSING - administration and logistics of executing the investment, including coordination of legal documents with legal counsel and determination of best tax treatment with tax professionals;

OVERSIGHT OF FUNDED INVESTMENTS - implementation of centralized cash disbursements and financial controls; representation of investors on portfolio company boards of directors; monitoring of financial and operating performance; constant communication with, and decision support for, company management.

HARVEST OF INVESTED CAPITAL AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT - managing dividends and distributions to investors to ensure pay-back of invested capital and the return on that invested capital; may include the potential recapitalization or sale of the portfolio company or our stake in it, on a case-specific basis.

Our Target Investment Description and Portfolio Strategy pages give you insight into how we evaluate potential investments and the criteria we apply to investment opportunities. We are focused on absolute returns on the investments we make and are tied to no benchmark or index when evaluating the performance of our portfolio companies.