OUR FIRM

Empowering management teams to lead their company.

A deal is only as good as the players involved. At Kissel Capital, our experience has shown that when the right people work in partnership toward a common goal, the dividends – tangible and otherwise – can be substantial.

Our experience and value is focused exclusively on management team recapitalizations. Utilizing best practices from the private equity industry, we bring capital and investors with industry insights that can help optimize opportunities for growth and success. We leave the day-to-day running of the company to the management teams. We’re investors, not operators.

Our approach is unique, and not every deal is a good fit. By being selective, the companies we work with get more attention and our best thinking. That’s because what we’re really committing to is not just the business opportunity, but the people who become our partners.

We’re Investing In Integrity.

Guiding Principles

Our Guiding Principles remain constant whether you are a management team, intermediary, or capital provider.

Integrity

It Matters. We follow through on what we say we’ll do, operate with full transparency, and are determined to always do right by our partners.

People

We put people at the forefront of everything we do, which is why we only work with those who share our ethics and our passions.

Honesty

We don’t just talk the talk; we walk the walk. We earn trust by giving respect, collaborating as a reliable and trustworthy partner and always dealing fairly.

LEARN OUR INVESTMENT CRITERIA

Our Advantage

• A true partnership approach

• No pre-determined hold periods

• Flexible capital structures

• Grounded in old school business ethics

• Selective investing approach

• Lower-middle market focused

Focus

Employing a Buy, Build & Hold strategy, we focus exclusively on management-led buyouts of Industrial Services companies. We favor sale processes where the management team has influence over the decision-making process.

Funding

We invest our own capital in the same securities as our management teams, partnering with trusted co-investors who are aligned with our Guiding Principles. We are proud to include former CEOs, high-net-worth investors, family offices, and institutional investors in our network.

Added Value

Management teams need to focus on their business. Our value comes via stakeholder relationship building, partnerships with industry leaders and developing structured add-on processes. We will strive to improve every business in which we invest.

Committed

We do not participate in company flipping, broadly auctioned sale processes, and avoid investment cadence. We are patient to find the best investments for the value. We only pursue ESG policies that make sense for our investors and management teams.

Investors, Not Operators

Kissel Capital’s approach is to utilize best practices from the PE industry, and leave the “TPS Reports” to our peers.

Luke A. Phenicie

Founding Partner

In 2022, Luke Phenicie became the Founding Partner of Kissel Capital, establishing an organization with the goal of helping great management teams buy the companies they work for. His like-minded investor network includes many former executives, family office and high net worth investors, and select institutional investors who have invested with him over the past twenty years and who value the firm’s Guiding Principles.

Luke has a 25+ year history of successfully investing in and transforming middle-market companies in partnership with their operating teams. Prior to founding Kissel Capital, Luke spent nearly 20 years at Hammond Kennedy Whitney and Company, Inc. (“HKW”), a leading middle market private equity fund based in Indianapolis, IN, where he led the firm’s investment team in partnering with privately owned companies on behalf of HKW’s investment funds. Luke has investment attribution for 30+ platform company investments during his tenure at HKW and served as Chairman and Director for many HKW portfolio companies. Luke is also on the Board of Directors for HKW and served on its Investment and Exit Committees. Luke remains an employee of HKW and plans to leave the firm in early 2023, however will remain involved in selected portfolio companies thereafter.

Luke started his career working in the M&A group at A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. and also for Prospect Partners LLC, a private equity firm based in Chicago, IL. He earned an MBA from The University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business and a business degree with concentrations in Accounting and Finance from Indiana University’s Kelly School of Business.

Luke is the past President of ACG’s Indiana Chapter, and also serves on various economic development, alumni and non-profit boards in the State of Indiana. Luke, his wife Jenni, and their three boys reside in Zionsville, IN.

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