Investment Criteria

Charter Oak Equity makes control-oriented investments in small to middle market companies across a variety of industries.

Investment Criteria

Charter Oak Equity will make control-oriented investments in small- to middle-market companies, ranging in size from $25 million to $150 million of enterprise value, and will target privately-held, often family-owned companies or non-core divisions of larger companies.

Small- to mid-sized market companies represent a very large market, estimated to comprise over 10,000 companies. These businesses provide opportunity for significant improvement in operating performance and strategic development as the management team is often home-grown and sometimes lacking in sophisticated management techniques. Often, smaller companies operate in large markets and, due to their relatively small market shares, have potentially huge growth prospects but are limited by their inability to finance growth. Partnering with COE can present a substantial growth opportunity for such companies.

Specific target industries include:

  • Packaging
  • Chemicals
  • Medical Devices and Engineering
  • Niche Industrial
  • Metal Processing
  • Pharmaceutical-Related
  • Value Added Distribution
  • Specialty Financial Services
  • Business Services

In addition to company size and industry, there are other key investment criteria that must be met before COE will invest in a company. First, we only pursue transactions where we can take a control position. The company should be in a strategically attractive market with a sustainable competitive position. The company's products or services must be well established in its market with a history of profitable operations. We are not interested in start-up or turnaround situations. Finally, the company must exhibit the capability to grow by leveraging the potential of its products or services and/or by consolidating a fragmented market.