You’re looking for an equity partner to support you as you embark on a new phase in the life of your company:
In an unfavourable economic environment, the Sagard team’s support for our ambitious capital expenditure project, which Sagard financed in its entirety, was absolutely critical to the successful roll-out of our vertical integration strategy in the United Kingdom and Poland. The team demonstrated both courage and vision, which is exactly what I expected from a leading equity partner.
In talking with Sagard, we very quickly understood that their philosophy was to invest in people and a project, without any particular demands as to the degree of capital ownership. They encouraged us to expand the circle of investing managers, and gave us the resources to increase the percentage of equity held by our teams. Today, this very broad employee shareholder base is one of Ceva’s major strengths, guaranteeing our independence and the engagement and motivation of our teams.
Since it first invested in us in 2005, Sagard has always taken an active interest in the management of our people and organisation. I was able to talk with them about the best way to develop our team, and it was in cooperation with them that, seven or eight years ago, I hired the new people or, in recent years, promoted the employees who will form the new generation that will take over the reins of the company in the future. In this way, the baton will be passed as part of an organised, carefully thought-out, well-planned process.
For Safic-Alcan and its teams, the challenge over the next few years will be to gain market share through acquisitions, by taking advantage of an industry that is still fairly fragmented. We felt that Sagard would be the ideal partner for this, given its successful track record in supporting other investee companies that made acquisitions, and the proposed structure involving initially low leverage and a contractual commitment to provide additional capital in the years ahead, if and when we need it to fund our growth.