The Guthrie Group is a leading, independent consultancy firm, focused on the initiation, facilitation and completion of transactions.
The Guthrie Group (‘TGG’) is a UK- and Asia-based merchant banking and investment group with particular focus on making and actively managing direct investments in mainland Chinese companies, both as principal and on behalf of selected co-investors. We seek to acquire equity stakes in companies with growth prospects, usually in the form of pre-IPO funding, with a view to assisting them with their continued development managerially and strategically and ultimately securing a realization of our investment through floatation or sale.
The Chairman of TGG is Daniel S. Pena. Dan is former Chairman of several US/European companies involved in oil and gas, IT, real estate, insurance and health care provision. He has had extensive dealings with many governments and international banking and professional firms. He has carried out extensive consulting assignments with Global 50 organisation including Siemens AG, the Onassis Group and the Vatican. He has been involved in over 500 M&A transactions and has raised several billion dollars of equity and debt funding for his various ventures.
Sally Hall is TGG’s Chief Executive Officer. Sally is a UK-qualified ACA and tax accountant, who qualified with Ernst & Young. She is the former CEO of a successful US internet start-up and CEO/Managing Director of an international high-tech marketing company. She has advised on over $7 billion in value of merger and acquisition transactions and has been involved in a number of high profile financial workouts and turnarounds.
TGG’s chief strategist is Jeremy Knight. After a career in merchant banking in the UK and US, he was Finance Director of a leading UK government services business, a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School, a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company and a corporate financier with Cazenove. He has been involved in the strategic management and development of businesses worldwide, and had completed in excess of 250 M&A transactions.
TGG looks for situations where it can create profitable investments by adding value. We add value as follows:
In certain industries which we know well (which includes the internet, particularly download businesses) we work closely with existing management to improve operations, to develop innovative marketing strategies, to evaluate and enter new markets and to improve overall positioning to maximize the revenue and profit base and take the company to a new growth trajectory.
- In other cases where we have less direct industrial experience we support management with our strategic insight, ways of doing business and guidance based on our substantial collective experience in many different industries and geographies. Here we work more like pro-active non-executive directors and consultants, dealing both with specific issues and supporting new opportunities as they arise
In these and other cases, we add value through financial engineering. This may be providing capital for a timely acquisition or a refinancing, but also includes planning where and when is the best place to raise finance and from whom; when and how to exit; and how to package a company and its operations so that it is ready for market, whether an IPO or a trade sale.
Whilst we will look at transactions in most sectors, we are particularly interested in businesses which are involved in water, renewables, power generation and infrastructure, together with consumer-facing businesses including the internet. Companies whose operations are within the focus areas of the current five-year plan are especially of interest.
Our ideal investment is between US$1 million and $5 million. A target company will have revenues of $5 million plus (although in some cases, eg the internet, we will look at companies which are smaller). Ideally a target company will be currently profitable and cash-generative, but consistent with the above we also look at companies which are not, either because they need reorganizing or because they are at an early stage of their development. We recognise that each situation is different, and we look at each case on its merits.
Our investment strategy always requires provisions for the protection of investors’ interests, including board representation and appropriate financial controls.
The Guthrie Group, through its offices in Shanghai, offers consulting and advisory services to overseas companies wishing to become involved in China, and to Chinese firms, entrepreneurs and other enterprises on investment activities outside China. The scope of our activities includes joint ventures, passive investments, capital raising (debt and equity) and strategic advice.
Our goal is to align ourselves with our clients’ interests so as provide practical, implementable strategic advice which creates long term and sustainable value for clients. We bring our extensive network of contacts to bear, and we help clients to implement their plans in a real world setting. We work closely with other professional firms in China, and have relationships with government and municipalities, as well as many industry players, which help to ensure our clients’ success.
We have worked in a variety of industries, including in particular the water and hi-tech sectors. We would be happy to explore with clients how our services can leverage their value propositions in the World’s fastest-growing market.
