Our
Purpose
Alegory Partners exists to create value for stakeholders by finding, buying and growing private businesses.
We have no interest in trying to generate returns by using excessive debt-financing or arbitrary layoffs. Rather, Alegory looks to add value with fresh perspectives and investment in new growth strategies. Strong, stable businesses take years to build, and our first and foremost priority is to always ensure the preservation of hard earned pre-existing value.
Disciplined,
but Opportunistic
We believe that investments in private businesses must be targeted and disciplined, but also opportunistic and situationally sensitive.
Cultivating a strong pipeline of quality, actionable opportunities without clearly defined investment vectors is akin to trying to boil the ocean. At the same time, disqualifying a promising opportunity solely because it doesn’t fall neatly into a box is a sure-fire way to stay well behind the curve.
At Alegory Partners we view our investment criteria as guiding principles that reflect where we are most likely to find attention worthy enterprises, rather than a rigid list of requirements which define worthwhile opportunities.
Investment opportunity identification and selection is as much an art as it is a science, and as with most things nuanced, focus areas, criteria, and evaluation vectors need to evolve alongside the broader market
Our
Approach
After identifying and investing in an opportunity, we take a hands-on approach to management and growth that typically involves one or more of the Alegory team taking leadership positions within the company.
While this approach limits Alegory’s ability to invest in a large number of businesses, we believe that this drawback is more than offset by the benefits of the Alegory team:
Being charged with executing the investment thesis they developed (something often missing in traditional private equity)
Having sufficient bandwidth to dedicate the required time and energy to grow a select number of investments (rather than constantly searching for new acquisitions)
Directly supporting growth, innovation, and organizational change with the speed and decisiveness of an owner-operator
Investment
Criteria
Alegory primarily focuses on traditional, established businesses, such as where an owner is seeking generational-transition. However, we also opportunistically invest in, and scale, growth-stage and distressed companies.
At Alegory, we pride ourselves in being systematic but also opportunistic and situationally sensitive when evaluating any investment. As such, when it comes to industry or sector focus, we prefer to specify what we are NOT interested in rather than a list of specific industries that we’re willing to evaluate.
In general, Alegory is most interested in investment opportunities that match at least some of the following criteria:
Deal Structure
Majority Recapitalization
Annual EBIT
$1.5-5M
Seller’s Motivation
Entrepreneurial liquidity or retirement/succession
Non-target Sectors / Veto Industries
Time-and-material businesses
(e.g. consulting, professional services)
Independent Hospitality
(e.g. single-location hotels, restaurants)
Financial Institutions
(e.g. insurance, banks)
Brick-and-mortar Consumer Retail
Oil & Gas
Geography
Australian based
with headquarters in Sydney
About Us
Alegory Partners was born out of a generation of family-led entrepreneurialism. Our vision is the culmination of a two-decade long journey; exploring private business as a force for social good, as well as the joys and woes of private enterprise.
Alegory came into existence through the distillation of our learnings, with three guiding principles at the centre of our thesis:
1.
Alignment of interests is everything; even the most dedicated employed manager won’t be as invested in a businesses success as the owners
2.
Most commerce isn’t rocket science; execution and follow-through almost always outweigh technical expertise
3.
Silicon Valley and the tech start-up obsession has caused the market to overlook and under-invest in non-tech but still worthwhile businesses
Our
Team
+ Gregory Miltenyi
Founding Operating Partner
Sydney
Gregory Miltenyi is a practised general manager with transnational experience, specialising in business systems development, and is Alegory’s founding operational partner.
Gregory’s focus is on operational evaluation, systems implementation and growth. His primary responsibility is as operational lead once an investment in a business is complete.
Gregory has a broad range of experience in sustainability, energy, data policy and import/export. He has spent the last two years scaling and growing a commodity export start-up in Papua New Guinea. Gregory’s design and implementation of fundamental business systems and processes has allowed the business to quickly scale in a fast paced and dynamic environment.
Gregory holds a Bachelors in Environmental Science (Honours 1st class) from the University of New South Wales and a Graduate Certificate in Economics.
+ Alexander Miltenyi
Founding Investment Partner
New York
Alexander is a seasoned investment professional, specializing in mergers & acquisitions, venture capital, and growth-stage investments, and serves as Alegory’s founding investment partner.
Splitting his time between New York City and Sydney, Alexander has spent the last six years working in M&A and investments and has successfully closed more than a dozen transactions in technology, real estate, hospitality, manufacturing, consumer, and healthcare.
With a background in middle-market investment banking, Alexander brings investment evaluation, deal execution, and corporate finance expertise to Alegory Ventures.
Alexander received his Masters in Business from Duke University, and holds a Bachelors in Commerce and Political Science (with distinction level honors) from the University of New South Wales.