Anne Willem de Vries

Anne Willem de Vries was a Strategic Consultant at Bain & Company. He made his consulting exit in 2012 to the Active Capital Company. Currently, he works as an Investment Manager at FIELDS Group.

You invest in steel cables?

"Active Capital Company started with its first fund in 2009 and now in 2012 we own four industrial companies between the three of us. One company makes advanced machines for building solar panels, the other three are steel cable companies. We deliver supplies to net builders in the Alps, so the soil doesn’t move, but also to builders of tractors that need cables for their tractors, or strops of cables for the placement of oil platforms and windmills at sea. Beautiful technology, which makes me very happy, coming from Delft."

In what ways do you differ from other private equity parties?

"We invest in smaller companies, with a minimum turnover of 5 million to a maximum of 80 million euro’s. Moreover, we do not just supply capital, we also work at changing their conduct of business. In short, we help our clients with three things: availability of capital, smarter management and the development of growth potential. This takes relatively more time and energy on our part, compared to other Private Equity parties. Our time investment starts off with three to four days a week, after a year we lower that gradually if need be to one day a week. We make sure management can stand on its own two feet after that."

No deal team but buy and build?

"At large Private Equity companies there are often bankers, it’s all about the deals there. They follow up on their shareholdings once a month and look at their reports. This opposed to the more hands-on parties such as ourselves, who not only help out on a strategic level, but also on a management level."

Who are your partners during the process?

"Often the shareholders as well as the owners sit at the table, the people who built the company. We are usually part of the second round of investments and that means there is something going on at the company: shareholders having a conflict, an owner who is retiring, mismanagement of the company. There is a lot to be done in terms of professionalizing. Structure is sometimes lacking. And that’s when the presentation skills I acquired at Bain come in handy. One of the fellow shareholders said to management the other day after an off-site: ‘I never understood my own company as well as I do now, after these two days’."

Who decides on a takeover?

"I do. Or rather I should say: we. A takeover is a very gradual process. We always discuss among the three of us if we want to take it a step further. And that is a big difference: every step is your own. At Bain I often witnessed the same takeover process, but we always needed to wait a few days to find out what the decision makers had agreed upon. The deals were bigger, but I played a much smaller part in them. That does mean however, that we need to take care of the entire deal ourselves, although there is a lot of talking to advisors and banks on legal contracts and the takeover’s financing."

Are there any other differences?

"If you disagree on something at Bain, or at KPN or Shell, then everyone maintains a certain level of civility, despite the difference of opinion. Decisions are being made rationally, after weighing the pros and cons based on a business case. At smaller companies emotion plays a much bigger part and that means tension may rise. That took some getting used to. The upside to that is sensitive issues don’t get worked out behind closed doors, but are being discussed face to face. Enlightening. I have also learned it’s good fun being part of a small team, which will need to be expanded soon due to our fast growth."