How White Knight Capital supports multi-generational family-owned enterprises with mission-driven capital
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Show Notes:
In this episode of Mission Matters, Adam Torres interviews Vijay Aiyar, Head of Underwriting at White Knight Capital, about how his team partners with family-owned businesses to manage generational transitions. Through strategic investment and advisory, White Knight helps ensure these businesses thrive well into the future.
About Vijay Aiyar
Vijay Aiyar is the head of underwriting and capital markets at Capri Capital Partners. His responsibilities include evaluating prospective investments, leading the acquisition process for such fund investments, and structuring, negotiating and syndicating the financing for Capri portfolio companies. In addition to his transaction experience, Vijay brings a deep network of relationships within the banking, private equity and institutional credit communities.
About White Knight Capital
White Knight Capital is the flagship fund of Capri Capital Partners – a Palm Beach, Florida single-family office investing the capital of Robert F. Mancuso, the first President and Chief Executive Officer of Merrill Lynch Capital Partners.
The greatest wealth transfer in the history of the United States – brought about by the aging of the baby boomer generation – is due to accelerate, resulting in an unprecedented transfer of assets of family-held companies. Families experiencing these succession events will enter periods of significant change and increased capital needs for their businesses. The resulting search for liquidity, stemming from obligations such as transfer taxes and diverging family objectives, will be challenged by reduced bank lending appetite, higher for longer interest rates and an increasingly uncertain geopolitical and macroeconomic environment.
Watch Full Interview:
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on be Our Guest to Apply. Alright, so today I’m in Los Angeles, California and I’m at the original mixer. Let me tell you, Kathleen Teply and Los Angeles Consulting Group, man, do they put on quite a mixer.
We got family offices, we got funds, we got all kinds. The whole community came out for this one. So and we’re at the Lux, which is a beautiful venue, and my next guest. Vijay man, welcome to the show. Hi Adam. Good to see you. Alright, so I know you’re seeing it, you’re here, the energy, all the people at Pact House.
How, what brings you out to the original mixer today? So I came here for the panel that actually kicked everything off. Yeah. I was fortunate enough to be able to speak at the panel, which was really based around investing trends in private equity and venture capital. So I had the, the good luck to be able to participate in that.
Yeah. And, and meet all the great people in attendance. So, you know, the networking was, was, was really the, you know, the hook for me to Of course, yeah. To come out and, you know, participate in the event today. What like a lot of different ways you could spend your time. Like how, first off, I guess before I ask this question, how long have you been around the community Los Angeles Consulting group?
Like how long have you been around the community? Close to two years now. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like a newcomer still. Yeah. But it’s, you know, it just shows how time flies. Yeah. Two years. And it’s been a great two years. Mm. What, what do you think makes this community different? I feel like there’s something in the air, obviously, but, mm-hmm.
But what makes it different? The closeness. The closeness of the community. You know, I come from New York. I, I grew up there. I spent much of my career in New York. And I think what moving out here to Los Angeles mm-hmm. And becoming, you know, part of the LACG community. Yeah. What that showed me is that it’s a very tight knit community out here.
Yeah, it is, right. People know each other, but people are all, well, you know, entrenched in what each other’s doing. And I think that that creates a lot of good collaboration opportunities and, you know, just a comradery that is hard to find in other areas. You know, for a place as big as Los Angeles, I’m surprised that.
The community is so well connected and together. Yeah. And it’s interesting and I think, and this is a, a shameless plug for Los Angeles Consulting Group, but I think a lot of it has to do with like, when you come to certain events like this or there’s certain event organizers like Kathleen, they have that ability to, they deliver event after event after event.
You come to the right event, you get what you’re expecting. Yeah. You’re having the conversations you want to, you’re not liking. You’re like, man, I just was in traffic for this. Exactly. Yeah. I think all too many times you. You find yourself driving home from an event. Yeah. And you ask yourself that question, but you’re right, Kathleen and her team do a tremendous job of putting the right people together, you know putting the right people together.
And like you said, volume of events. The, the only way you can really develop that closeness and network is by getting out. Mm. You know, you see people. You know, 2, 3, 4 times, that’s when you start building the connections. So I think she has a right idea by just, you know, getting people out there. Yeah. Yeah.
And let’s just switch topic a bit here. Talks about your company and what you do. So I work for a family office. Mm-hmm. Called Capri Capital Partners. Mm-hmm. We are the family office of a gentleman named Robert f Mancuso. Mm-hmm. He was actually the founder and first CEO of Merrill Lynch Capital Partners, which was the.
Private equity arm of Merrill Hmm. Through our flagship fund, we we actually invest and partner with exclusively family held businesses. Hmm. Our mission and our goal is to provide capital to those families. Yeah. To help them navigate through periods of change. Mm-hmm. Often times those brought about by intergenerational transfers.
Mm-hmm. And by that I mean, you know, a succession event where a, a business is being handed down from an owner a founder down to the next generation. And what comes with that is usually a fairly large capital and liquidity need. Mm. Now, whether that’s estate taxes. Hmm. You know, today it will cost a family 40% of their estate.
Yeah. You know, when a founder passes patriarchal matri passes, and that’s just at the federal level. Mm-hmm. Before even talking about state. Yeah. So that’s a huge liquidity crunch for a family business where all the family’s wealth is tied up in that business. Mm-hmm. And that’s just one of many elements that contribute to this, to this phenomenon.
Mm-hmm. You know, you have families that have diverging objectives that require shareholder buyouts. You’ve got. You know, different growth strategies under new ownership mm-hmm. That just require capital to allow that business to, to execute on their objectives. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, what we’re doing is we’re trying to preserve the legacy of these businesses Yeah.
And enable them to survive, to become multi-generational enterprises. Hmm. Without which, you know, the, the unfortunate reality is that many of these families have end up selling their business to, to fulfill the capital needs that come. Mm-hmm. With these succession events. Yeah. How did you get involved in the industry?
Like, where’d that start for you? So, I’m actually a banker by, by trade. I spent close to 10 years at Barclays Investment Bank in their leveraged finance platform. So I was financing and providing committed financing to private equity firms looking to execute on LBO and m and a transactions. Mm-hmm. So I have a history in the capital markets mm-hmm.
And in the you know, private investment space. Mm-hmm. And after doing that for a long time, I decided to make a move. Mm-hmm. And I actually got to know Bob, our, our founder mm-hmm. Through a fellow colleague at, at, at Barclays. And once we got to, to talking about what Bob was doing, I was really intrigued.
Yeah. You know, I think that it’s a mission that matters. Mm-hmm. You know, what we’re doing is not just investing in attractive businesses. Yeah. But what we’re doing is we’re preserving. Family businesses and the communities and residents that touch those family businesses, those ecosystems. Yeah. We’re, we’re, we’re, we’re giving a lifeline to those ecosystems.
So, you know, we’re not only allowing a, a family to, you know, to to, to preserve their, their wealth, you know, their generational asset, but we’re giving life to a community. Yeah. And it’s an, it’s, it’s a real impact that we’re having in. You know, it’s a mission that matters and, and it’s a market that’s experiencing tremendous growth.
Mm. You know, this is all born out of the the, what people call the great wealth transfer. Mm-hmm. And that’s, you know, depending on where you, where you look at the stat, it could be anywhere from, you know, 70 to a hundred plus trillion mm-hmm. Of assets. Yeah. Being transferred from one generation to the next, in the next 10, 20 years.
Mm. Much of that is in business assets. Mm. And so that avalanche has already begun and it’s only accelerating with the aging of the baby boomer generation. Yeah. And so we, we’ve identified this, this trend, and we believe that it’s an underserved it’s an underserved need mm-hmm. By a lot of families in America.
And it’s one that’s only growing. Mm. And we think that White Knight Capital. Is one of the few, if not only vehicles, that’s purpose built specifically for helping families navigate through that. Man, that’s amazing. Dj, this is a great story, man. One that I’m happy to bring my audience. If people wanna follow up, if they wanna learn more about White Knight Capital, follow the journey, think about, like see the companies you’re building in and, you know, deal flow.
I don’t know if, are you still, are you actively looking at other companies opportunities to invest in still, or? Yeah. We’re actively looking at opportunities or actively assembling the fund right now. Which is gonna be composed of, you know, our own family capital. Mm-hmm. Along with fellow family offices.
Yeah. That will join us. So, yeah, we’re all, you know, moving forward on all fronts. Mm-hmm. And we are actively looking for investments that fit our strategy. That’s awesome. Good stuff. Last thing I want you to do, look into the camera, Vijay , if somebody wants to follow up, if they wanna learn more, how do they do it?
Yeah, well, you can visit our website at www.capricapitalpartners.com. You can also find us on LinkedIn. We have a company page. If you search White Knight Capital, you’ll find us on LinkedIn. So we’d love to hear from people who are interested in learning more about our mission. Folks who are invested interested in joining us on our journey.
Yeah. To save the family legacy. We welcome all people and anyone who really wants to learn more about what we’re doing and see how we could collaborate and partner to to solve this mission. Amazing. And for everybody watching at home, just so you know we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes so you can just click on the links and head right on over.
And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet. Hit that, subscribe or follow a button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Vijay, man, appreciate you coming on. Thank you. Really good to see you.