Alceon was drawn to the business by Boss’s prescient focus on automation and robotics, and its exposure to Australia’s essential food supply needs. Former CHAMP Private Equity dealmaker Ben Sebel, who sits on the PE unit’s advisory board, will chair Boss’s board.
Ploughing for deals
“This is a deal that makes absolute sense to Alceon and our loyal investor base because it fits our core strategy of marrying flexible capital with operator led, market leading companies,” Midalia said when contacted by Street Talk. “We believe our ability to identify and work with leading mid-market companies such as Boss is unique in the Australian PE sector.”
It is the sixth deal out of Alceon’s PE team since Midalia, who formerly worked at Ruffy Geminder’s Kin Group, joined forces with Wilshire. The duo had a good 2023, booking an 80 per cent return on an IRR basis for their backers at childcare play Nido. The IPO secured backing from AustralianSuper and ended up being the year’s second-biggest listing.
Their playbook is to hunt for founder-led businesses in its target sectors, and to tag along for the ride. It then taps its investor network to fund the deal. Often, it’s the first external investor on the scene, as is the case at Boss Engineering.
It scours for deals in healthcare, defence, childcare and education, and civil infrastructure services. Names in the portfolio include ophthalmology and short-stay hospital roll-up SMS Healthcare, IT managed services business EFEX and construction, compaction and traffic management equipment provider Orange Hire.