We focus on situations that traditional private equity investors find difficult to handle.

About

INOPAL is an investment management and consulting company focusing on privately owned small and medium sized enterprises based in the Czech Republic.

Our investment focus is mainly on situations that traditional private equity investors find difficult to handle. We are ready to invest in companies where ownership is not yet separated from management, companies with temporary operational difficulties, companies where there are disagreements between co-owners, and other situations typically requiring a temporary active participation

In similar situations, we are also ready to act in an advisory role. We support company owners who are looking for help with their ownership or operating structure. This may include support in the process of succession, separation of ownership and management, finding optimal governance, supervision or management of a (family) business, setting up a model for maintaining (family) assets in case the owner does not have suitable family members or needs to combine professionals and family members in asset management.

INOPAL relies on an experienced team and an extensive network of international contacts across a number of industries and functions. In addition to financial support, we typically take an active role (for a transitional period) in our investments and we full y leverage our know-how and network.

Investment

Investment focus

As part of our investment activities, we focus on small and medium sized enterprises, where we can add value by addressing one of the following issues:

• transition from an owner-managed company to standard governance by professional management
• high growth potential and at the same time lack of working capital financing, human or other resources
• significant expansion into new markets (new geographies, new products, new sales channels)
• operational difficulties or threat of insolvency
• disputes among co-owners and/or the buy-out of one of the co-owners
• financing the acquisition of a company by an existing or outside management team (management buy-out, management buy-in)
• optimization of capital structure and/or working capital financing structure
• other situations requiring temporary active participation in management or governance of a company

Investment Criteria

• Enterprise Value: 2-10 mil. EUR, Equity Value 1-5 mil. EUR
• Industry: any except for real estate
• Stake: from significant minority to 100%
• Investment horizon: without limit / no specific horizon
• Financing structure: any form from plain equity, convertible debt to mezzanine financing; we do not provide plain debt financing

Advisory

As part of our advisory activities we focus on the following situations:

• Succession process: preparing the owner and potential successors, proper timing and smooth transfer of management and ownership of the company
• Professionalization: separation of day-to-day management from ownership, transformation of the owner's role, appointing key functions (family member vs. professional), setting qualification criteria for roles and functions
• Managing family structures for long-term stability: family constitution, family office, exit rules for non-family members, family governance vs. business management, defining roles, criteria, and corporate culture for professional management
• Incentive schemes for management, option or other incentive mechanisms
• Optimization of the capital structure and working capital
• Alternative financing outside traditional banking instruments and limits

Team

Ondřej Novotný

• Education: CTU, Prague, IMD, Lausanne (www.imd.org)
• Previous experience: CEO ICP Czech Investment Company, Chairman of the Board of Directors and other management functions in financial institutions (AXA, AEGON, Česká Pojišťovna, Citibank, Komerční banka)
• Ondřej focuses on the issues of process optimization, M&A, project management and succession in private companies, as well as training of owners and successors of private companies in the field of succession
• LinkedIn profile: Ondřej Novotný

Michal Palata

• Education: UK Prague - PhDr. Economics (ies.fsv.cuni.cz), Mgr. Law (www.prf.cuni.cz); MBA (www.rennes-sb.fr)
• Previous experience: McKinsey (www.mckinsey.com), Enterprise Investors (www.ei.com.pl)
• Michal has experience in strategic and operational planning and management, developing and restructuring companies, motivational structures and mergers and acquisitions in a number of sectors including retail, manufacturing, financial services, consumer goods, energy and media.
• LinkedIn profile: Michal Palata