Vestar Capital Partners / Our Partnership Philosophy

Invest in Management

Good partnership is good business. That’s been our investment philosophy since the day we founded Vestar 20 years ago.

Our strategy is simple: We look for strong management teams at successful companies with excellent growth potential. We back those teams with the capital and global resources they need to realize that potential and take their companies to the next level.

Build for the Long Term

The quarter-to-quarter mindset of the public sector has no place at Vestar. For us, a core premise of private equity investment is that short-term profit should never come at the cost of long-term value. We encourage our management partners to run their companies as though they’re going to own them forever.

At the outset of every investment, we work with management to establish our long-range goals for creating value in that company. Only when we and management agree that those goals have been met do we jointly discuss exit strategy.

If we spot a new opportunity or a complementary business that might further enhance a company’s value, Vestar will invest additional capital as needed. We’ve yet to regret any investment we’ve made for the long-term good of a portfolio company.

Our commitment to long-term value is a central reason our investments are consistently successful, and our loss rate is among the lowest in our industry.

Share the Risk, Share the Reward

When a management team decides to take control of a business, they’re taking a considerable risk. Their personal and professional reputations are riding on the success of that company—and in many cases, they’ve chosen to invest a significant amount of their own personal capital as well.

We know the feeling. We took the same entrepreneurial risk 20 years ago when we founded Vestar.

We think it’s important to share that risk. That’s why every Vestar partner is personally invested in every company we acquire. In fact, we have always been the largest investor in each of our funds—a fact that separates us from most other firms.

Sharing the financial risk ensures that all parties in a transaction—Vestar principals, the management team, and our investment partners—have the same incentives and goals, and the same personal stake in the outcome. We think that’s critical.

We think it’s equally critical that the rewards be commensurate with the risk. Our management equity plans have always been extremely generous, and we encourage our management partners to share that equity as widely as possible throughout the company. The more employee-owners who stand to gain from the success of an investment, the more strongly motivated that company will be to achieve success.