Investment banking veteran Dominic A Petito (pictured) has formed Wisdom Capital Partners, LLC, a private investment firm focused on middle market companies with solid growth potential.
Petito formed the firm in order to provide insight, relationships and differentiated solutions to companies that would not normally have access to private equity due to their size or condition.
"By focusing on companies that are below the radar of typical private equity firms, we have access to deals that our co-investors would not otherwise see," he says.
The firm’s principal focus will be on privately-held, including family-owned, companies seeking liquidity or capital to grow to the next level. The firm will target companies with enterprise values below USD50 million. Petito believes that firms of that size are in an underserved market and do not have access to traditional sources of private equity, which tend to target much larger transactions. Wisdom Capital Partners will focus on a number of industry sectors, including consumer, commercial and industrial, digital media and financial services. The firm will make investments in other sectors on a selective and opportunistic basis. Wisdom Capital Partners will invest its own capital alongside its network of investors who commit capital on a per transaction basis.
According to Petito: "Our investors commit capital directly to individual transactions and make their own investment decisions, rather than investing in a fund with a long-term capital commitment. Wisdom Capital Partners will only receive management and incentive fees on completed transactions."
Co-investors in the firm’s transactions will include family offices, entrepreneurs, asset managers and high net worth individuals.
Petito has over 30 years of experience in financings, mergers, acquisitions, recapitalisations and restructurings. He was most recently an Executive Managing Director with BMO Capital Markets, and Co-Head of US Investment and Corporate Banking.
