Middle Market Companies Represent Enormous Growth Potential By Gary Pagar, CEO, TriCanyon Capital, LLC

Middle market companies represent approximately forty percent of the United States workforce and gross domestic product and are central to national economic recovery and growth.

Their financial strength in relation to their overhead, balance sheet, operational agility and flexibility often allows them to more readily adapt to meet the demands of changing markets. Reports indicate that middle market organizations prove more resilient to economic conditions, with more than sixty percent of these companies reporting growth and an even greater number planning for continued expansion over the next two years.

Middle market companies generally possess greater resources than small businesses in the same industry. As a result, these organizations are often better positioned to withstand economic slowdowns and sector difficulties than are small business. More so than small companies, they are able to capitalize on market contractions and position themselves for growth as the economy recovers, often increasing market share during a downturn. Their relatively stronger balance sheets allow them to attract talent and implement innovations more easily during a downturn, acting with a more offensive, rather than defensive, posture and exhibiting a longer-term tactical and strategic orientation.

Unlike many multinational and enterprise-class corporations, which have enormous fixed overhead (and often quarterly earnings pressure as publicly traded companies), middle market companies are often nimble enough to adapt to changing market conditions without placing undue stress on their organizational structure or the morale of their employees.

As the economy has now exhibited signs of sustained, albeit slow and somewhat tentative growth, many middle market companies are well positioned for growth and represent excellent investments.

About Gary Pagar: Gary Pagar is founder and Chief Executive Officer of TriCanyon Capital, LLC, a Los Angeles-based boutique investment banking and merchant banking firm focused on middle market and emerging growth companies. With more than 25 years of investment banking and private equity investment experience, Mr. Pagar and his team work closely with companies to develop their strategic and capital growth plans.

During his career, Mr. Pagar has completed equity and debt financings and merger & acquisition transactions with a combined value in excess of $4 billion. Prior to forming TriCanyon, he spent several years as Chairman of MedFirst, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs, and as a partner at the Tribeca Group, a private equity firm investing in middle market companies. He began his career at Merrill Lynch and Oppenheimer. Mr. Pagar’s business successes have been recognized over the years by several leading business journals, including Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, and Crain’s Business Journal, where he was recognized with their inaugural 40 Under 40 award. Mr. Pagar is also a recipient of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was a long-time member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). Gary Pagar was educated at the University of Rochester (and later served two terms as a member of its Trustees Council) and the graduate division of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“The University of Rochester Boasts Unique, Build-Your-Own Curriculum for Undergraduates,” by Gary Pagar

A top-tier U.S. institution of higher learning, the University of Rochester has over 10,000 students and 2,000 faculty and academic staff. The university has earned status as a top-rated U.S. institution, placing 33rd on U.S. News and World Report’s ranking of national universities and 36th on Kiplinger’s list of best values in private colleges.

Today, the University of Rochester allows undergraduate students to build their own curricula in order to align their academic pursuits with their strengths and talents. At the University of Rochester, no subjects are required (with the exception of one primary writing class), which allows many students to earn double or even triple majors. The university boasts over 200 academic disciplines, which fall into one of three great areas of learning: humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences and engineering.

The University of Rochester’s approach to curriculum design provides a rich learning environment for students. As a result, the university attracts top-performing students, 77 percent of whom rank in the top 10 percent of their respective high school classes.

About the Author

Gary Pagar is an entrepreneurial executive with expertise in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester in 1978.

Agribusiness Offers Significant Potential for Return (Part 2), By Gary Pagar Managing Director, TriCanyon Capital LLC

The first article in this two-part series outlined the changing nature of agribusiness and the increased need for improvements in the sector. With an increase in the number of competing “breadbasket” producers, growers and agribusiness councils throughout the world seek improvements in technology, supply channels, and distribution mechanisms that streamline their costs and facilitate stronger production and larger markets. Optimal results often entail the establishment of partnerships between growers, downstream processors, retailers, traders, and farm service and input suppliers that ensure ready access to equipment, seed, and other necessities.

The complex nature of agribusiness compels the involvement of knowledgeable financiers. Professionals understand risk assessment and management, can navigate buyer and seller contracts, and have the ability to identify price discovery and physical exchange. Moreover, such investors accelerate the development of infrastructure needed to promote activities by rural areas that have historically had only limited ability to participate in the markets.

About the Author: With more than 20 years of experience in the financial markets, Gary Pagar offers emergent companies in such sectors as agribusiness the opportunity to gain traction in the sector. He possesses keen insight in such sectors as technology, health care, media, energy, and consumer products. Gary Pagar also facilitates such endeavors as mergers and acquisitions as well as corporate financings and restructurings.

The Basics of REIT Investing

A Backgrounder Provided by the Office of Gary Pagar

A real estate investment trust, or REIT, aims to return a profit through creating investments in real property or mortgages and selling shares in these investments on leading stock exchanges. A highly liquid form of investment, REITs can produce high yields and with a lesser risk than some forms of direct real estate investment. REITs additionally, enjoy a set of special tax regulations, and many offer dividend reinvestment plans, or DRIPs. A REIT may invest in shopping malls, office space, hotels, or housing units. 

REITs come in several varieties. A mortgage-based REIT owns and invests in mortgages on real property. Mortgage REITs lend funds to the owners of the real property or buy up existing mortgages in order to draw a profit from the interest paid. An equity REIT derives its profits mainly from rents paid on the real properties it owns. Hybrid REITs feature both kinds of investment.

Many REITs offer investment diversity through their focus on one or more geographic regions and types of real property. Investment professionals frequently recommend REITs to their clients because of their diversity, transparency, liquidity, and overall prospects for significant returns. 

Some have noted that allocation of from five to fifteen percent of a stock-and-bond portfolio to REITs boosted the risk-adjusted return of that portfolio in each decade-long rolling cycle since the early 1990s.

To become an investor in a REIT, a consumer may purchase shares directly or through a real estate-targeted mutual fund. Because any investment decision involves an amount of risk, individuals interested in REITs or any other financial instrument should consult a qualified professional.

Gary Pagar has used his experience in a variety of senior investment banking positions to assist clients interested in investing in real estate, consumer products, and other market sectors.

Some Basics of the Consumer Products Investment Market, A Service of the Office of Gary Pagar

Many seasoned investors and financial professionals advise new investors to focus on market areas in which they possess the most personal knowledge, a concept known as “circle of competence” investing. This insight can add a more in-depth understanding of the product, the market for it, and the strengths and challenges of its industry. The Fortune 500 includes an array of restaurant chains and makers of breakfast cereals and popular snacks, as well as multi-consumer products companies, such as Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, whose familiar household products possess a global reach.

The recent economic slowdown posed problems for manufacturers of items such as clothing and consumer food products as discretionary spending sometimes lagged, yet many analysts believe that the industry’s prospects remain sound overall. In mid-2012, the Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services foresaw a relatively steady and stable prospect for investment in most consumer nondurables.

Some investors elect to position funds in small business consumer products companies. Today’s continuing market uncertainty makes it a good idea for these investors to pay particular attention to the day-to-day practices of these companies. In particular, investors should evaluate the vetted quality and experience of a company’s corporate leadership, the strength of its brand and level of positive media presence, and the ratio of production costs to actual market revenue. A small business consumer-oriented company should also be able to explain to its investors whether it is creating strategies for future acquisition by a larger corporation, and what those strategies are.

Senior investment banker Gary Pagar has extensive experience in the consumer products, health care, and media industries gained through his service in senior-level management positions at several major firms.

About Gary Pagar!

As a Managing Director at Cappello Group, Inc. in Santa Monica, California, Gary Pagar invests over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry in his work. Since 2007, Gary Pagar has focused his time and energy on a wide variety of professional activities for Cappello Group, Inc., with an overall concentration on investment banking, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and other related services for clients in the United States and abroad. Commanding a solid track record in the media and entertainment, retail, consumer products and services, healthcare, energy, real estate, and financial sectors, Gary Pagar has proven an integral and versatile member of the management team at Cappello Group, Inc. and maintains a commitment to excellence in every facet of his work.

Over the course of his career, Gary Pagar has served as both principal and advisor to numerous multinational companies, leading more than 100 financings of debt and equity, acquisitions, and divestitures. Prior to joining Cappello Group, Inc., Gary Pagar spent two years as a Managing Director for Westwood Capital, LLC in New York City, where he participated in several large investment banking projects. From 1999 to 2004, Gary Pagar served as a Managing Director and Senior Advisor at Profile Media Group, during which time he gained an intimate familiarity with the entertainment industry. In this capacity, Gary Pagar handled negotiations for feature film production, oversaw the financing and distribution efforts of an independent film production company, and fulfilled an interim role as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer at an independent record label and music venue operator.

Gary Pagar joined Profile Media Group after seven years as Chairman of MedFirst Healthcare, Inc., a Goldman Sachs’ portfolio comapny. Other positions held by Gary Pagar include Chairman of Plymouth Lamston Stores Corporation, a portfoilio company of the Tribeca Group, Chairman of the Tribeca Group, and Managing Director of Tribeca Capital Resources, Inc., its advisory services arm. To read additional information on the professional background of Gary Pagar, visit the Cappello website at cappellocorp.com.