Novo Tellus Capital Partners re-energises Asia’s lower middle-market companies
Private equity firm pursues management buyout and growth capital investments in niche companies
Dialling up its focus on Asia’s lower middle-market companies has propelled Novo Tellus Capital Partners in the private equity scene since its founding in 2010. The Singapore-based private equity firm is actively pursuing management buyout and growth capital investments in niche companies with differentiated products and channels catering to a global customer base.
Novo Tellus is centred on making transformative changes in its investments through a shared vision along with increased management ownership, and focused execution on the longer term inputs of a business such as its product pipeline, operational excellence and customer satisfaction.
“We have an experienced management team with a deep understanding of the challenges faced by business owners and CEOs in the lower middle market,” says James Toh, co-founder and director. “This makes us realistic capital partners, fully aware that business pivoting takes time. It’s a journey that we are prepared to take.”
Apart from access to capital, Novo Tellus brings into play its extensive company-building experience, cross-border points of view and broad industry knowledge and connections. It targets lower middle-market businesses with significant value-creation potential that are operating in the information technology, industrial manufacturing, health care and clean technology sectors.
With a country’s economic and geopolitical stability a major consideration in its ventures, the firm’s current equity investments are in businesses based in Singapore and China, but it is looking to expand in Malaysia.
To date, Novo Tellus has led the turnaround of a number of companies, notably AEM Holdings – a niche leader in providing highly automated material handlers.
“We see opportunities to re-energise more family-owned and closely held businesses in Asia,” says Loke Wai San, co-founder and managing director. “We aim to establish Novo Tellus as the top-of-mind firm that these companies can rely on to take care of their legacy and help them scale up in the international stage. With us, there’s no hidden agenda as we always talk straight and deal fair.”
