QEC Investment Partnerships
QEC frequently teams up with other private equity firms as well as industry leading companies in financial services & insurance, manufacturing, food & beverage, travel & transportation, healthcare and more to capitalize on unique added value opportunities.
Our partnerships with these organizations are evolving beyond acquisitions, with some industry segment companies spinning off specialized assets and co-investing with QEC and its industry partners in the new company, giving these companies a chance to keep their portfolios diversified while mitigating some of the operational and financial risks that come with diversification. QEC’s increased role in deals spans many industries reflecting on private equity’s increased investments across the economy. As QEC seeks to balance its investments in more volatile industries, such as technology, with investments in more stable industries that are less prone to a recession’s effects, growing industries appear to be even more attractive.
Along with other private equity firms, QEC investments continue to exert influence on global supply chains by creating a number of lucrative opportunities to create efficiencies and reduce operating costs along the entire supply chain. In manufacturing, QEC partners with future-leaning companies to build regional supply chains in the Americas in contrast to the older strategy of relying on overseas production, building out new manufacturing plants, warehouses and logistics networks. The resulting newly created manufacturing and logistics companies, which are jointly owned by QEC and its industry partners, brings production closer to home, partly in response to growing demand for increased sustainability and domestic manufacturing. This also allows for the creation of integrated manufacturing hubs that enable supply chains to be nimbler and better suited to manufacture customized products.
Supply chain optimization is one of several ways QEC and its private equity partners create value and efficiencies in the manufacturing industry. Whether it be partnering with part and component manufacturers to bid for suppliers that have fallen on hard times due to operational and other inefficiencies, or building a manufacturing backbone that helps reduce transportation costs and import duties, or building a platform by acquiring similar supplier and distributor companies within a given industry across the globe, QEC is poised to capitalize on these significant industry-sector opportunities.
In conjunction with other investment partners, QEC is stepping into areas of the financial services space vacated by traditional banks and strategic investors following the financial crisis. This has been fueled in large part by the disruptive power of technology to upend traditional business models, and changes in legislation and regulation which encourage more plurality in the financial services industry. Additionally, a post-crisis shift in regulators’ sentiment towards private equity investment in financial services has also supported increased private investment in the sector. Eager to prevent distressed financial institutions from failing, regulators have recognized that, in many cases, private equity firms such as QEC are the only serious buyers for assets in need of a bailout.
While strategic M&A deals involving large technology companies often grab headlines, tech has increasingly become a private equity-backed industry. Unlike many venture capital firms, QEC and it fellow private equity partners, manage tech companies differently, balancing growth with profitability by investing at a slower, more deliberate pace, both in people and technology. While going public had previously been considered the end of the rainbow for emerging tech companies, this approach has fallen out of favor with many tech companies that no longer wish to alter their corporate strategies on a quarterly basis, and wish to avoid the increased regulatory requirements of public trading. Whereas old-school private equity was largely limited to cost-cutting initiatives, such as job cuts and office closures with debt-fueled deals, QEC is part of a new wave of tech-centered sponsors that is continuing to invest in growth and revenue expansion, in conjunction with prudent cost optimization.
