Investment Philosophy

BlackEagle is founded on the belief that substantial long-term value appreciation can be created with the right combination of capital and strategic resources. We believe in partnering with new or existing management teams to align their interests with ours through equity participation, co-investment opportunities and bonuses based on financial performance. 

BlackEagle’s special situation approach seeks to make control equity investments in businesses with sustainable models and potential for future financial improvements. 

Underperforming or Distressed Businesses
BlackEagle invests in financially or operationally distressed companies, ranging from mildly underperforming to businesses facing potential liquidation.  We focus on opportunities that have potential for margin improvement and businesses with a path to profitability. 

Bankruptcies
BlackEagle targets businesses operating in bankruptcy or facing constrained liquidity as a result of excessive leverage.  Our investment team has developed a core competency in acquiring insolvent companies, either in or out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  We have been involved in numerous transactions that required bankruptcy and restructuring expertise to successfully conclude a series of complex negotiations with a variety of creditor, bondholder, employee and equity investor constituencies.

Non-Core Subsidiaries
BlackEagle invests in non-core businesses of larger corporations that would benefit from more hands-on and flexible ownership.  In many cases, non-core subsidiaries suffer from under investment and there is often a large opportunity for value creation by supplementing existing management, implementing a new strategy and instituting profit improvement initiatives. 

Information Challenged Situations
Often times underperforming businesses face management, financial and operating issues that make it difficult for potential acquirers to determine value and risk.  While many troubled companies are not capable of tracking and monitoring key operating, cost and profitability data, BlackEagle has the expertise and resources to mine source-level data and build profitability models critical to understanding where money is being made and lost in a business. 

Contrarian Opportunities
We also target companies in industries that are out-of-favor with strategic buyers, financial sponsors and the capital markets.  Industries with low growth rates, excess capacity, significant legacy costs, intense competitive pressures or volatile raw material pricing generally face limited access to capital.  We believe in a strategy that an operational turnaround that appropriately sizes a company’s cost structure will lead to a business that generates significant free cash flow when an industry does rebound.

Control Via Debt
BlackEagle will seek to acquire distressed debt positions of businesses with the intent to gain operating control through a restructuring or bankruptcy proceeding.  We target smaller companies where the debt positions are less liquid with fewer creditors than larger companies.