Compass Partners Asset Management
In 2010, Compass Advisers formed Compass Partners Asset Management, a principal investing arm focused on alternative investments. Compass hopes to create additional investment vehicles over the next five years in niches where it has strong competitive advantages.
Led by Scott Marden, the team's first investment vehicle is the Compass Investment Partners Fund, ("Compass Partners"), a growth-oriented, middle-market private equity fund (the "Fund") within the Business Information and Services markets. Compass Partners invests in businesses seeking to take advantage of three accelerating trends that are driving the U.S. economy's transition to an information and service-based model: outsourcing, digitization and globalization. Compass Partners' strategy is to target proven, profitable middle-market business models that provide their customer base with critical information, proprietary content and outsourced services leveraging databases, digital platforms and highly skilled employees.
Sectors that Compass Partners specifically evaluate include the B2B information management, knowledge services, marketing services, commercial / professional services and business process outsourcing markets. These proven businesses typically provide recurring, cost-effective services on an outsourced basis or will deliver proprietary, must-have informational content that can be distributed across multiple channels. These companies typically have superior margins and defensible competitive positions built upon a well-established brand.
The Fund combines the team's industry perspective and unique operating experience to serve as a value-added partner to management teams, with the aligned goal of generating superior risk-adjusted returns for investors. Compass Partners works closely with portfolio company management teams in providing previously unavailable strategic resources to accelerate organic growth opportunities, to develop tuck-in acquisition strategies, and to implement operational efficiency programs.