Our clients trust Valitas to navigate their most complex, mission-critical projects because of the experience and rigour that we deliver.
Our role as a premium M&A advisor is to maximize value for our clients. Optimizing only the corporate sale process usually results in a 10-20% valuation improvement, leaving significant shareholder value on the table. Most companies can triple shareholder value over five years by applying proven, universal principles. With these principles as the foundation for our value creation system, many of our clients have experienced more dramatic results. Here is a client success story where shareholder value increased by 150% in only a year and a half. By following our value creation system, our clients realize far greater value than they would by working with a conventional M&A advisor.
Our founder has completed more than 100 M&A transactions worth more than $80 billion. This experience was earned over 25 years working at a leading private equity fund and boutique advisory firms, and through progressive roles at leading global investment banks that were acclaimed for their M&A leadership. Valitas has adopted best practices from these acclaimed firms and further honed them into a system to drive exceptional outcomes for our clients. We limit the number of clients we serve to ensure our founder can bring his extensive experience to every client project.
We leverage our founder’s experience and our proven value creation system with a team of exemplary operators, a curated network of independent experts, and the most rigorous team selection process in our industry. Our team of exemplary operators has led global businesses, held senior operating roles at private equity portfolio companies, and led dramatic operational turnarounds. Our curated network of independent experts provides best-in-class capability in operating system implementation, pricing optimization, leadership development, operations management, marketing & communications, and other crucial value creation areas. One in 200 applicants meets our standards. Those who are successful in joining our team receive 1,250 hours of training before joining our client project teams.
Like our clients, we own our firm. We have experienced the highs and lows of building a truly exceptional company from a blank page at the dining room table. Our mission at Valitas is to deliver exceptional value to our clients as their value creation partner of choice. We specialize in providing white-glove service to visionary companies that want to build a future exit at a dramatically higher value than they could achieve today or by working alone. We often work closely with these clients for years, overcoming obstacles along the way to achieve their goals. We are situational specialists, not industry specialists. We do not aspire to be a large firm that does a high volume of transactions, but instead, aspire to be the firm that is renowned for the exceptional outcomes we unlock with a few key clients.
Valitas has adopted best practices from global investment banks and leading private equity funds. We have further enhanced these practices by developing proprietary systems that unlock the best outcome for each one of our clients.
On each project, we use our proven five-step process:
We first develop a deep understanding of our client’s situation. We then apply our market knowledge to assess the full range of alternatives and possible outcomes before we begin developing options.
We canvass potential counterparties to generate a complete set of options.This process enables us to surface the outliers and select a shortlist to engage with. This ensures we capture the best option for our client.
We focus on a shortlist of the best initial proposals. Usually, these initial proposals are highly conditional. We apply competitive tension to remove conditions and then drive improvements to the firm proposals, creating an actionable set of options.
Our client chooses their best option from the shortlist once we are comfortable that the selected counter party will deliver on the terms of the transaction. We then collaborate with legal counsel and professional advisors to provide expert support until the closing.
We provide ongoing support to ensure a smooth post-closing process and a seamless transition to whatever comes next.
Valitas unlocks global access to capital markets and potential partners for our clients. We combine multiple third-party and proprietary databases with customized software, systems, and a dedicated research team to readily access insights into market trends, valuations, and the universe of potential partners for our clients. These insights include the strategies, investment criteria, and preferred structures of potential buyers, investors, and lenders, informing our advice. Furthermore, our privileged access to more than 7,500 decision makers in these groups enables us to engage with that unique outlier who is the ideal match for each client.
These systems and technology have enabled us to continually accumulate deeper and broader market insights and access for our clients.
We consider it a privilege to earn the trust of our clients, helping them in the most complex and high-stakes transactions of their lives. We are obsessed with exceeding each client’s expectations. Seven Client Service Principles govern our actions.
There are two things any advisory firm must master to excel. The first is to gain the trust and respect of its clients and advise them well. The second is to attract, develop and retain the best team. Valitas was built on these cornerstones.
To meet the challenge of executing complex, mission-critical projects for our clients, our team combines transaction experience that is unmatched in the Canadian middle market with carefully selected aspiring professionals from leading business schools and professional service firms from across North America.
Sophisticated clients know the experience of their deal team matters more than the number of deals their firm has done. At larger firms, the team that worked on the transactions listed in their credentials is often not the team working with that client. Our clients work with the people who were directly involved in the transactions outlined here.
Over the past 25 years, our team has collectively completed almost 200 financing and M&A transactions worth more than $180 billion, having advised on complex public market M&A transactions at leading global investment banks. We also bring rich insights from our extensive experience with private market transactions valued at less than $100 million.
