Dominus Capital
TOP 50 PE Winner
2022
Firm Inception: 2008
Number of Active Portfolio Investments: 8
Number of Realized Investments: 18
Investment Range: Revenue $25 –$200M EBITDA $10 –$25M
Current Fund: Dominus Capital L.P. III
Current Fund Size: $362M
Transactions completed since October 2020, including acquisitions, add-ons, and divestments:
Integrity (Add-on to BluSky Restoration)
Rebuildex (Add-on to BluSky Restoration)
Consolidated Equipment Group (Platform investment)
Menold (Add-on to BluSky Restoration)
BluSky Restoration (Platform divestiture)
Seaga (Platform investment)
Traffic Safety Systems (Add-on to Surface Preparation Technologies)
Cincinnati Fan (Platform divestiture)
Leadership:
Gary Binning - Founding Managing Partner
Ashish Rughwani - Founding Partner
Robert Haswell - Founding Partner
Michael Smart - Partner
Team Members: 20
Primary Address: 1325 Avenue of the Americas 26th Floor New York, New York 10019
Website: http://dominuscap.com/
Phone Number: (914) 281-4767
Which best describes the firm?: Traditional | LP Funded
Industry focus: Light Manufacturing & Business Services
Attributes: Firm History, Deal Volume, Firm Growth, Unique Firm Strategy, Operations Management, Deal Execution, Total-Exit ROIs, Performance, Extraordinary Transactions
Firm History and Growth: Founded by Gary Binning, Robert Haswell and Ashish Rughwani in 2008 as a spin-off from Quad-C, Dominus has grown from a start-up of four people to a team of 20 professionals, including 7 Operating Partners / Advisors. The firm positions itself as an operationally focused investment partner to founder & family owned middle market companies at an inflection point in their development. Dominus is an experienced value added partner that untaps the future growth potential of their company.
Deal Volume: We pride ourselves on our business development efforts in the lower middle market, especially with local brokers to families and founders . We believe everyone in the market expected a COVID bump in deal flow . Pitch Book estimated an increase of 20-25% in overall deal flow. During this period Dominus reviewed more than 844 deals, an increase of 65.8% over the previous period. Dominus has completed 8 transactions since October 2020, with an additional platform investment expected before year end 2021.
Unique Firm Strategy: Dominus focuses on investing in family and founder owned /operated businesses - more than 73% of deals come from that type of seller where Dominus is the first institutional capital. Our operational approach to private equity drives a unique partnership with management and allows them to unlock growth opportunities through organic initiatives (both revenue generating and cost reducing) as well as M&A. Through this strategy, Dominus has displayed consistency in performance with a track record of over 3x invested capital (~40% IRR) on 18 realized platform investments.
Operations management: Dominus' has a history as a value-add partner having invested in 67 family-owned businesses. Dominus works to further professionalize those portfolio investments and drive execution through value-creating strategic initiatives with the help of 7 operating partners / advisors who have an average of 39 years of industry experience.
Performance: Dominus has a history of producing consistent upper-quartile performance for its funds, while also driving similar returns for equity-holding management members and Limited Partner coinvestors. Over the past 3 years, Dominus has invested $524M in 6 portfolio companies and 13 add ons. During this same period Dominus has realized on 5 portfolio investments returning more than $1.1B in capital. Of the $1.1B $379M went to Limited Partner Co-investors. Dominus has already returned over 50% of its most recent fund, Fund III which was raised in September 2020.
Extraordinary Transactions: In October 2021, Dominus sold BluSky restoration for more than $1B. Through strong organic growth and with 6 add-ons, BluSky and Dominus achieved a ~$60M increase in EBITDA over ~3 years ($18M to $77M). During ownership, Dominus helped transform BluSky from a small regional restoration company, into one of the largest nationwide providers of restoration, repair and remediation services. The deal returned more than 4.4x MOIC and 62.4% IRR for Fund II and a 2.9x MOIC and 159.1% IRR for Fund III, while driving the same results for a large pool of Limited Partner coinvestors.
Overview
Founded in 2008, Dominus Capital is a middle-market private equity firm with an operating focus. Dominus draws on the experience and network of its team of in-house operating executives.
The Dominus team members have executed over eighty-five transactions in the middle market over twenty years.
Dominus focuses on making controlling equity investments in healthy companies with untapped potential, market leaders with defensible market positions, and has a preference for business services and light manufacturing companies.
Why do prospects want to do business with the firm?
Dominus maintains a partnership approach which creates a great opportunity, especially for the many family / founder owned businesses that Dominus partners with; this has driven high levels of co-investment from previous owners, averaging 20-30% historically. Dominus also has an operating focus that has consistently proven to drive value-creation without the need for financial engineering and the use of high leverage. Dominus is very transparent about its successful track record for business owners and operators, and consistently provides an extensive list of past and present CEO references for sellers to call. Additionally, Dominus is consistently looking for platform and add-on investments, which allows an opportunity for M&A advisors to present their clients to a credible and consistent buyer.
Why do intermediaries present opportunities and want to conduct transactions with the firm?
Dominus has driven deal flow from more than 206 intermediaries, most of which are local business brokers & owner advisors. They choose to work with Dominus for a variety of reasons including Dominus track-record of successful PE outcomes. Dominus is very transparent and does not shy away from revealing track record or references. Dominus drives speed to close, thorough and quality diligence, and professionalism. Dominus' experience investing in similar businesses to the intermediaries' clients provides comfort that intermediaries are passing along their clients to an experienced partner.
Dominus Capital
HQ
1325 Avenue of the Americas
26th Floor
New York, New York
10019
Call (914) 281-4767 | Visit http://dominuscap.com/ →