Trimaran Fund Management (“Trimaran” or the “Firm”) is a middle market private equity firm. We seek long-term capital appreciation by making privately negotiated equity or equity-oriented investments in niche middle-market companies. Trimaran typically invests $25 to $100 million of equity in transactions ranging in value from under $100 million to $1 billion.
We are experienced investors. Since 1995, we have invested $1.6 billion of equity in more than 60 portfolio companies in transactions totaling in excess of $10 billion.
Trimaran has invested in a variety of other industries, ranging from growth and technology-oriented investments to highly-structured project and infrastructure investments to deep value investments and turn-arounds. The subject companies in these acquisitions spanned a variety of industries including energy, infrastructure, telecom/media, technology, consumer products and services, financial services, and manufacturing.
We have been an innovator. Trimaran and its predecessor were early investors in telecom and Internet businesses such as Global Crossing Ltd. and TeleBank Financial Corporation. We led the first LBO of an integrated electric utility, TNP Enterprises, which was the parent of Texas-New Mexico Power Company. We have made ground-breaking investments in electric transmission through ITC Holdings Corp, which became the largest independent transmission company under our ownership.
Our objective is simple: To generate superior risk-adjusted returns for our investors. We accomplish this by adhering to a set of fundamental principles:
We know that a strong, motivated management team is critical to investment success. Management teams in our companies tend to have ownership positions in excess of typical levels, sometimes by orders of magnitude. We align our interests – short-term and long-term – with those of our managers. We support them with capital and we assist them in every possible manner to achieve their business and personal objectives.
Private equity investing is a competitive business. Our success is due, in part, to developing investment opportunities in new areas before others find them, and by knowing how to build value. Our early participation in telecom and Internet investments are examples of this, as well as our ground-breaking investments in regulated electric utilities.
We invest in LBOs and recapitalizations, make growth investments and invest in project financings. We are most comfortable acting as control investor, as well as joint control with other like-minded private equity or strategic investors. We are willing to work through complex capital structure, regulatory, tax and legal issues in order to complete transactions.
We believe that entry price is a fundamental determinant of investment success. This is as true for a rapidly growing business as it is for a basic manufacturer. Our access to proprietary deal flow and over twenty years’ market experience are important in maintaining price discipline.
Our business model is designed to maximize the number of opportunities we and our portfolio companies see. Our broad industry mandate, wide universe of relationships and our flexible approach all serve to maximize our deal flow.
We believe in prudent leverage for our companies, with capital structures that do not put undue pressure on operations. When a company underperforms, we have a bias toward early intervention. We frequently make follow-on investments in our portfolio companies, sometimes to support growth, and when necessary to deal with temporary shortfalls.
We treat our colleagues, management teams, employee groups, partners, service providers and all others with whom we interact with the utmost degree of respect. Our reputation for integrity is our lifeblood.
