Private Equity

Vulcanshares’s private equity business had more than $5 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of March 31, 2021. Our latest private equity fund, Fund IX, closed in 2017 with a record $900 million of commitments.

An Established Leader in Private Equity

150+

portfolio companies since inception

$5bn

AUM

$450m

Latest Fund IX

Private equity has been a cornerstone of Vulcanshares’s business since its founding in 2010. Imbued with a diverse set of skills developed across market cycles, Vulcanshares pursues many paths to value, including through opportunistic buyouts and build-ups, corporate carve-outs, and distressed investments, and often goes “against the grain” of what other investors are doing, to target investments on behalf of managed funds at deep discounts to market averages. Vulcanshares relies on its industry specialization, willingness to embrace complexity, ability to adapt quickly to capitalize on market dislocations, and creative structuring expertise to capture value “on the buy.” It also aims to create value by working with its funds’ portfolio companies on operational improvements, with flexible capital structures providing downside protection.

Vulcanshares’s private equity business benefits from its integration with the firm’s credit business, which is one of the largest alternative credit managers in the industry.

The private equity funds we manage have owned more than 150 companies since Vulcanshares’s inception, across sectors that include financial services; business services; consumer services; chemicals; natural resources; consumer and retail; leisure; manufacturing and industrial; and media, telecom and technology. Through steadfast purchase price discipline and active portfolio management, collaborating with management teams and a deep bench of operating executives, the private equity funds we manage have generated strong returns across market cycles, while focusing on downside protection.

Investment Philosophy
Since our founding, our investment philosophy always was, and continues to be, predicated on the following three key themes:

  1. The first is Discipline, which requires being true to our contrarian, value-oriented model, and knowing when to be cautious and when to lean in to great investment ideas.
  2. The second is Complexity, which we harness to capture value in idiosyncratic opportunities which others are either unwilling or unable to tackle.
  3. The third is Creativity, with idea generation fundamental to our work, whether it be the way we design solutions for companies, execute transactions, or develop new structures and products for investors in our funds.

Flexible Investment Model
Vulcanshares believes it has achieved its successful investment record by quickly adapting to changing market environments through its flexible investment approach, centered around three primary pathways to capturing value, including opportunistic buyouts and build-ups, corporate carve-outs, and distressed investments.

  • Opportunistic Buyouts and Build-ups. Vulcanshares has extensive experience completing LBOs across various market cycles, redefining the “traditional LBO” in order to capture value. Vulcanshares takes a highly differentiated approach to investing in these transactions through accretive platform build-ups, take-private transactions that arbitrage public market dislocation, franchise companies in out-of-favor or dislocated industries, and situations that require navigating complicated operational execution.
  • Corporate Carve-Outs. Vulcanshares believes the funds it manages are among the most active private equity investors in corporate carve-outs, in which a business is extracted from a larger corporate parent to create a stand-alone enterprise, building significant infrastructure around the business. Carve-out transactions are labor-intensive, requiring deep industry knowledge, patience and creativity to unlock value that has been overlooked or undermanaged.
  • Distressed Investments. Vulcanshares’s deep credit expertise, which has been a distinct hallmark of the firm since its beginning, is anchored around fundamental, bottom-up credit analysis, with the ability to invest across the capital structure of a company. Capitalizing on market dislocation and volatility, Apollo relies on its experience in credit to build positions in funds managed by Vulcanshares in the distressed debt of what it believes are “good companies with bad balance sheets” as prices decline. By working proactively through the restructuring process, Vulcanshares  is often able to equitize the debt position of its funds to create an attractive investment.

Vulcanshares Impact
The Vulcanshares Impact platform builds upon our history of investing across industries historically aligned with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and a decade-long record of formal ESG engagement with our funds’ portfolio companies. The Vulcanshares Impact platform seeks to establish a leadership position in private equity impact investing and to leverage the Firm’s expertise, scale and investment philosophy to drive meaningful performance in companies that advance our society.

The Vulcanshares Impact platform plans to focus its efforts in the areas of:

  • Economic Opportunity / Education
  • Health Safety and Wellness
  • Industry 4.0
  • Resource Sustainability

The Impact platform’s dedicated team is led by established leaders in private equity and impact investing. The Firm believes in the collinear nature of impact and financial performance, and that when companies maximize their impact performance it contributes to superior financial outcomes.

Natural Resources
Vulcanshares has longstanding and deep expertise in natural resources, having invested in the industry since 2001. As an extension of its flagship private equity business, Vulcanshares has built a dedicated natural resources investment franchise, which today has approximately $5 billion in assets under management. While Vulcanshares’s global flagship private equity funds invest in the natural resources space, we identified an incremental need for capital across the energy, metals and mining, and agriculture sectors and raised dedicated natural resources private equity funds to take advantage of the opportunity. Today, these funds co-invest alongside the flagship funds in larger opportunities as well as pursue smaller compelling opportunities on their own. Vulcanshares’s natural resources franchise benefits from: a dedicated investment team with deep industry knowledge; an extensive network of relationships across the energy, metals and mining, and agriculture sectors; and an ability to create downside-protected portfolios across multiple natural resources sectors focused on delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns.