Our Approach
Sage Capital seeks to partner with talented leaders and entrepreneurs.
We support both traditional search funds and more bespoke, non-traditional and self-funded searchers in their quests to acquire small to medium-sized businesses in Canada with $2.0M – $10.0M of EBITDA.
Our Process
Sage is a hands-on investment partner.
We assist our searchers with the formulation of their investment thesis and outreach tactics, the negotiation of EOIs and LOIs with prospective acquisition targets, operational due diligence, introductions to senior lenders and third-party accounting diligence sources, and other holistic feedback during the pre-acquisition phase of the search.
We help structure deals, serve as active board members in every deal we invest in, and provide access to our unique and vast local Canadian-market network in an effort to help our searcher CEOs develop into strong and capable leaders and operators.
We collaborate with our searchers to help maximize outcomes at exit.
What Types of Businesses Are We Looking for?
Financial Criteria
- $2.0M – $10.0M EBITDA
- Strong EBITDA margins
- Predictable recurring or reoccurring revenue sources
- Non-cyclical with proven history of profitability and growth
- Low capex requirements
- Cash flow and asset sufficient to sufficiently service capital structure
Prefered Management Situation
- Owner/operator seeking exit
- Succession planning
- Partnership breakups
- Leadership transitions
- Strong middle-management willing to remain
Industry Focus
- Largely industry agnostic subject to some caveats below
- Growth industry
- Limited risk of technology obsolescence, regulatory risk, legal risk, environmental risk
- Lack of dominant competitors
- Low cyclicality and low operational complexity
- No commodities-based or heavy manufacturing businesses
Company Specific Criteria
- Diversified customer base
- Growth potential via organic sales growth, geographic expansion, product/service extension and acquisitions
- Product/service differentiation exists or can be created
- Stable contractual relationships
- Motivated seller for non-business reasons with reasonable valuation expectations
We take an active role in supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs and work closely with them to help them succeed.
Sage’s co-founders, Glen Silvestri and Jon Piurko, take an active role in each of Sage’s investments in an effort to mentor the next generation of entrepreneurs in Sage’s portfolio and provide them with the tools they need to be successful. We serve on the boards of each of the investments we make and we make it our business to be available for searchers and entrepreneurs to seek advice and assistance whenever required.
With decades of private equity investing experience and a broad network across the country, Glen and Jon are uniquely positioned to help searchers from around the world in the efforts to acquire strong Canadian private companies.