Private equity provides investors with access to businesses and opportunities outside public markets, with the potential to create value through business growth, operational improvement and long-term ownership.
Understanding Private Equity
Through Lake Volta Investments, B. Moses Group brings together investment, capital and business-building capabilities to identify, assess and invest in private businesses where we believe there is an opportunity to create sustainable long-term value.
Investing Beyond Public Markets →
Unlike investing in shares traded on a public exchange, private equity involves investing directly in privately held businesses or acquiring meaningful ownership positions in companies.
Returns can be generated through a combination of business growth, improved profitability, strategic development and, ultimately, the realisation of the investment through a sale, recapitalisation, listing or other liquidity event.
Private equity is generally a longer-term and less liquid investment than listed equities, making careful selection, valuation, governance and execution particularly important.
Our Approach - From Opportunity to Value Creation
Successful private equity investing requires more than identifying a promising business. It requires understanding how the business creates value, what could prevent it from succeeding and what can be done to strengthen its long-term prospects.
Our approach considers the investment throughout its lifecycle.
Identify → Finding the Opportunity
Seek businesses and situations where there is a clear investment rationale and potential for long-term value creation.
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Assess → Understanding the Business
Consider the business model, financial performance, management, industry, competitive position, valuation, growth potential and key risks.
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Invest → Structuring the Investment
Determine how capital and ownership should be structured around the business, opportunity and objectives of the relevant investment strategy.
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Build → Creating Long-Term Value
Work with management and stakeholders to support growth, strengthen operations and develop the business over time.
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Realise → Realising the Investment
Consider appropriate pathways to realise value when the business, investment objectives and market conditions support an exit.
The Role of Private Equity in a Portfolio
Private equity can provide investors with exposure to businesses, opportunities and return drivers that differ from those available through traditional listed markets.
Access to Private Businesses
Participate in businesses and growth opportunities that are not generally available through public exchanges.
Long-Term Value Creation
Investment returns can be driven by the underlying development and performance of the business over time.
Active Ownership
Meaningful ownership can provide greater ability to influence strategy, governance, capital allocation and long-term business development.
Portfolio Diversification
Private equity can introduce different businesses, industries and sources of return into a broader investment portfolio.
Private equity also involves risks, including capital loss, illiquidity, business and execution risk, valuation uncertainty and potentially long investment periods. These characteristics need to be considered within an investor’s broader objectives, circumstances and portfolio.
How We Seek to Create Value
Capital is only one part of private equity investing.
Where appropriate, our approach is to understand what a business requires to develop and consider how capital, expertise and strategic support can contribute to its long-term potential.
Business Growth
Support opportunities to expand products, services, customers, distribution or markets.
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Operational Improvement
Strengthen systems, processes, technology and operating capabilities that can support sustainable growth.
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Capital & Financial Strategy
Consider how the business is funded, how capital is allocated and whether its financial structure supports its objectives.
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People & Leadership
Support management and, where appropriate, introduce additional expertise and capabilities as the business develops.
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Strategic Acquisitions
Consider complementary acquisitions where they can add capability, scale, distribution or strategic value to the underlying business.
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Exit Readiness
Build stronger and more sustainable businesses capable of attracting future investors, strategic purchasers or accessing broader capital markets.
Lake Volta Investments - Our PE Arm
Lake Volta Investments provides a dedicated platform for the B. Moses Group’s private equity activities.
Its focus is on identifying, investing in and developing businesses where capital, expertise and strategic support can contribute to long-term value creation.
Where appropriate, Lake Volta can draw on capabilities from across the broader B. Moses Group, including investment management, capital markets, financial structuring, governance, risk and business operations.
This allows opportunities to be considered not simply as financial investments, but as businesses requiring a combination of capital, people, strategy and disciplined execution to realise their potential.
Private Equity Within B. Moses Group
Investment Ownership & Strategic Growth
Private equity complements the Group’s broader capabilities across public and private markets.
It also reflects an important part of the way we think about investing: understanding the underlying business, identifying where value can be created and taking a long-term approach to capital.
Importantly, our private equity capability is distinct from the strategic acquisitions B. Moses may undertake for its own corporate growth.
Private Equity involves investing in businesses through appropriate investment structures with the objective of creating and ultimately realising investment value.
Strategic M&A involves B. Moses investing in or acquiring complementary businesses that strengthen the Group’s own long-term capabilities.
Both require disciplined assessment and execution, but they serve different objectives.
Understanding the Investment Horizon
Private Equity Takes Time
Private equity is generally a long-term and illiquid investment.
Unlike listed securities, there may be no readily available market through which an investment can be sold. Capital may remain invested for several years while the underlying business develops and the investment strategy is executed.
The eventual pathway to liquidity may include a strategic sale, sale to another investor, recapitalisation, public listing or another appropriate transaction.
This longer investment horizon can provide businesses with time to execute strategies that may be difficult to pursue under the shorter-term expectations of public markets, but it also means investors need to understand and accept the associated liquidity and execution risks.
Investing With an Ownership Mindset
Understanding the Business Behind the Investment
Whether investing through public or private markets, our starting point remains understanding what we are investing in and why.
In private equity, that means looking beyond the transaction itself to understand the business, its people, financial position, competitive environment, opportunities and risks.
The objective is to invest with a clear rationale, support sustainable value creation and maintain oversight as the business and investment evolve.
Investing for the Long Term
Private equity requires patience. Businesses take time to develop, strategies take time to execute and value may take time to realise.
Our approach is therefore centred on understanding the business, investing with a clear rationale and working to build sustainable value over the investment period.
