Project: Terminal MBE

Case Study

Project: Terminal MBE
Professional engineering and project manager servicing airports and transportation agencies

COMPANY AND SITUATION OVERVIEW

Terminal MBE is a leading provider of professional engineering, project and construction management, facility management and IT consulting services to airports and transportation agencies, as well as other infrastructure, government, and private sector clients. The company has a nationwide footprint that is supported by 14 regional offices and ~200 employees. A family-owned company, Terminal MBE agreed to sell a majority equity stake to a sponsor due to personal events unrelated to the business. The sponsor believes that the total consideration, coupled with the likely event of Terminal MBE being awarded additional contracts, makes it an attractive purchase.

WHY METROPOLITAN?

Metropolitan was able to close the transaction quickly before new contracts to Terminal MBE were awarded, potentially increasing the purchase price. Additionally, Metropolitan’s funding structure ensured that the sponsor could maintain the MBE status of the company, which is highly coveted given its access to government contracts and other economic advantages.

CEO TESTIMONIAL

“Metropolitan was incredible to deal with. Super easy. Metropolitan was so creative in figuring out the issues and never re-traded.”

Project: Spirit

Case Study

Project: Spirit
Company that purchases, ages and sells young-aged bourbon and rye barrels in KY & IN

COMPANY AND SITUATION OVERVIEW

Spirit strategically buys, stores, ages, and sells barrels of American whiskey. Spirit’s management team has successfully grown a craft whiskey brand and has an extensive network of both producers and buyers of whiskey barrels. The company had forward purchase agreements to acquire a significant amount of new fill barrels from independent distillers but lacked the financing to do so.

WHY METROPOLITAN?

Metropolitan was able to understand the dynamic supply/demand of this esoteric asset, which was too complex for traditional sources of financing. Metropolitan structured a multi-draw loan to allow Spirit to execute on these purchases and sell the barrels strategically.

CEO TESTIMONIAL

“Prior to diligence, the team prepared me for a process which was ‘get to YES’ versus the usual ‘get past NO’ – and they delivered. Metropolitan made the upfront effort to understand the inner workings of our business opportunity; this enabled us to take advantage of dynamic market dislocations in the early parts of COVID.”

Project: MSP

Case Study

Project: MSP
Roll up of IT-managed service providers serving small to mid-sized businesses

COMPANY AND SITUATION OVERVIEW

MSP is a buy-and-build roll up of IT-managed service providers serving small to mid-sized businesses with 20 to 1,000 employees. MSP sought capital to acquire a full suite of service offerings and implement proven sales, marketing and operational strategies to accelerate growth and profitability after 20 acquisitions. MSP was under LOI to purchase the platform and had over 100 potential acquisition targets in its pipeline but lacked the financing to execute their business plan.

WHY METROPOLITAN?

By using the run-off value of its existing customer base, Metropolitan was able to create a borrowing base structure that included a flexible approach for MSP to acquire targets. Metropolitan’s creative structuring was a value-add for MSP as the company saw it as a competitive advantage for its acquisition strategy.

CEO TESTIMONIAL

“We selected Metropolitan because their entrepreneurial mindset was in total alignment with ours and because of the expediency with which Metropolitan could move.”

Arvind Krishnamurthy

Our Team

Arvind Krishnamurthy

Senior Advisor

Arvind Krishnamurthy is a Senior Advisor at Metropolitan. Prior to joining Metropolitan, Arvind was a Principal with Paragon Outcomes, a private investment firm focused on real asset and credit-oriented investments. Prior to that, Arvind was a Principal and founding team member of CAM Capital, where he led the firm’s private investments, and was a middle-market private equity investor with Greenbriar Equity Group and Veritas Capital. Arvind began his career as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs and a private equity analyst at Bain Capital. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in Social Studies and received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Previously, Arvind was a board member of Ardmore Shipping, Infinity SDC and Interbarge.

John Ioannou

Our Team

John Ioannou

Senior Advisor

John Ioannou is a Senior Advisor at Metropolitan. John has held leadership, turnaround, governance or advisory roles in 29 companies across 14 different industries and has built and run several startup software and services companies. He also spent 14 years at IBM where he held leadership positions and was responsible for managing $1 billion in credit facilities and customer financing. John is a summa cum laude graduate of St. Peter’s College with a B.S. in Management.

Shirley Wang

Our Team

Shirley Wang

Operating Associate

Shirley is an Operating Associate at Metropolitan. Her responsibilities include reporting, data management, event logistics, and coordination of the firm’s Operating Expert division. In addition, she is responsible for managing the firm’s administrative and IT operations, as well as the administrative team. Shirley graduated from Rutgers University with a B.S. in Business Management. Shirley enjoys playing flag football and tennis, and helping foster dogs.

Mackenzie Matscherz

Our Team

Mackenzie Matscherz

Senior Reporting and Operations Associate

Mackenzie Matscherz is a Senior Reporting and Operations Associate at Metropolitan. Her responsibilities include deal tracking, loan agency, investment operations, data and system analysis, and internal reporting. Mackenzie graduated with a B.S. in Informatics from The University of Massachusetts College of Information and Computer Science.