SEARCH FUND INVESTORS INTERESTED IN NEW ZEALAND
I'm exploring the possibility of establishing a search fund for an acquisition in New Zealand. I'm a dual US/NZ citizen currently living in the US, but returning to NZ in 2021.
Does anyone have insights about how to identify search fund investors who could be interested in such an acquisition?
In short, the market has zero awareness of search funds, so there is an educational challenge. It is also capital short especially for mid market and early stage investments, so there is an investment gap too.
The business owners will probably be accepting of search funds being a form of PE, so I think that is fine as long as you can show funds backing up any offer. Also multiples are more reasonable than the US.
To date, no searcher has got "search" capital or "acquisition" capital. There is one searcher I know of that has essentially self funded his search and acquisition (from the US, Kiwi wife). Good investment so far I believe.
Australia is having some success, perhaps listen to my podcast (search for my name + "Search Funds in Australasia with Alexander Simmons") but it is still early days.
I would make contact with the international search fund of funds and pitch to them first. I'm not sure you can assume local funding. Something I'd like to change...but its a long term project.
Good luck Shaun! Happy to discuss and meet (no Covid19, thank god). I'm in Wellington.
I was involved in setting up a PE fund early this year and worked search funders into the PPM. But that paused during Covid19 (investors were Australian and we can't travel across the Tasman). I'm not convinced that will restart until we're past this, NZ has isolated itself as you probably know.
My preliminary research suggests a self-funded search might be most viable. I have a decent NZ network that I think I could then activate towards an acquisition fund, but that's just an assumption right now. Which leads to the original question of the general appetite of US-based investors making FDI in NZ. It seems that this is unheard of to date, but it would be good to get a signal to validate this either way.
Tagging a few investors that might be interested in backing your traditional searchfund in New Zealand: ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted], ^[redacted],