Bill Ferris > Quotes

“Married with three boys, John Porter was an enigma to us at first. Always courteous, open and good fun, he had a laid-back style that initially had me worrying about just how serious and committed he really was.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Mixing a profitable small-store format business with a loss-making big box format retailer was a dumb idea. Each format needed different store management, different merchandising skills, different customers.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Until and unless there is a sufficient consumer pull for this sort of healthy product, our Rumentek solution will not be commercially viable. So I guess the first lesson is: Be sure your inventor’s solution is solving a problem that the marketplace will pay for now, not in ten years’ time.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“We have lifted EBITDA from a $30 million run rate to $60 million in the 2012 financial year. This has involved rationalisation of the product range and brands, with a reduction of SKUs from 450 to 250, together with some cost savings throughout the group.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The better your transaction documents, the less likely it is that you will ever need to pull them out of your desk.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“it makes sense to be ready should an attractive opportunity suddenly appear. This may manifest in the form of the IPO market window opening, or an unexpected approach by a major trade competitor.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Herrick then had to prove the third part of his proposition—that a demand for wine from this region could be established in the UK market. Not surprisingly, convincing the key buyers in the specialty chains like Oddbins and Victoria Wines took longer than first thought. The 1993 vintage was small and somewhat experimental; it was really not until the 1994 vintage was available that the buyers became confident of the sustainability and quality of the James Herrick label. The big retailers Tesco and Sainsbury’s also bought the product as it began to establish a position at the then premium price point of £3.99 a bottle. The fundamental pieces of the core proposition were beginning to work.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“His ability to see and understand the other side in any dispute before rushing to improve his own position was to be a lasting lesson for me.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“were stumped by the capital intensity always characterising these wine companies. Not only capital tied up in vineyards, wineries and bottling facilities, but also in the inventories of finished wines.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Nor does the seller necessarily take the highest cash price he is offered since there may by other benefits important to him, such as the likely impact on family members and employees, customers, intellectual property and reputation.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The modern general partnership (GP) needs a team of executives who can execute on the following seven core requirements: 1. RAINMAKING: A nose for new deals, and how to find them. 2. DEAL ANALYSIS AND EXECUTION: Ability to value a company and buy it for a sensible price on sensible terms, including arrangement of a sensible level of debt to support the acquisition structure. 3. IMPROVING THE PORTFOLIO COMPANY: Knowing how to help management make their companies great, not just good. 4. SELLING THE PORTFOLIO COMPANY: Recognising when it is time to sell and knowing how to achieve a fair price. 5. MANAGEMENT OF THE GP: Managing project teams, coaching junior staff and leading by example. 6. SERVICING THE INVESTORS: Not only with profits but also timely and accurate information and building strong relationships. 7. FUNDRAISING: Being able to present the case for why investors should entrust you to do a great job with their savings. Building this trust over many years is essential.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Don’t go into a turnaround deal unless you already have the turnaround CEO who you know can do the job.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“look for the special angle you have or can bring to the deal. In the case of Austar there were two: bringing ‘clean hands’ to the vendor, enabling us to solve a problem with the junk bondholders’ position;”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“They had different store management, different merchandising and different customers. They were, and always will be, different businesses requiring different things for success.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“through forensic focus on margin by customers and offering higher-margin customised malt solutions, 90 per cent of the impressive earnings improvement was derived from organic growth.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Lesson four: Personal ‘money up’ focuses the mind. Nothing you haven’t heard (or perhaps felt) many times before, but well worth repeating.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“In the immediate period ahead, there will continue to be a strong presence of the offshore PE group in the larger end of the Australian PE markets.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“A timetable and a commitment for realisation are important for all shareholders but especially for the minority non-executive shareholding of the venture capitalist. Otherwise, the venture capitalist is exposed to the whims and passions of the majority holders.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The likes of UBS, CSFB, JPM, Merrills, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs and Rothschilds had all rapidly developed their PE practices dedicated to servicing the Australian PE markets. And so it was only a question of time before the major offshore PE houses would be encouraged to our shores. Blackstone, KKR, CVC, TPG, Carlyle were some of the ‘big guns’ seeking targets in antipodean hunting grounds.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Our analysis of the core proposition was flawed in one important regard: we allowed ourselves to be overly impressed by the science and spent too little time on the marketplace analysis. In fact, what we had was a solution looking for a problem—rather like the laser beam technology that sent so many people broke in the sixties and seventies before the market was ready for laser-based solutions. Beware of solutions looking for problems!”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“So our CORE PROPOSITION was: ‘This was an opportunity to acquire currently cutthroat competing businesses at distressed values where an immediate uplift in value would be derived from (a) the reduction in competition and (b) the synergies from joint purchasing, IT warehousing, and management.’ Seven warehouses would be reduced to three, two merchandising teams to one and two finance teams to one.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Co-operative Research Centres may prove to be a growing source of products and ideas for the venture capital market in future years.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“The importance of this point was underscored by the number of questions tabled by the bidders, namely 710 during due diligence. These were answered promptly and with a minimum intrusion on management time.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Philip Knox was the CFO. He had his hands full with public company filings and stock exchange time lines, not to mention the demands of a fifteen-member banking syndicate whose covenants were now in breach. Again, we were well enough impressed with this CFO’s ability to be all over the critical cash flow and earnings information.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“In 2000 there may have been about $1 billion in funds available from domestic PE shops, including CHAMP’s pioneering CHAMP I Buyout Fund of $500 million. Since then, approximately $22 billion has been raised by Australian PE funds (see Table 21).”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“A second piece of fortunate timing was the strength of the equities market and the voracious appetite for new issues during the first half of 1998.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“When you want something so badly, you can rationalise all sorts of facts and figures; this was Micawber all over!”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“Look for whether you can alter a price-taking business into a price-making one by differentiating service and/or customising product specification. If you can, you will probably be able to buy low and sell high.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“we had to work out whether the core proposition had ever made sense and whether it could still make sense.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

“These three premises formed the CORE PROPOSITION for their French enterprise.”
― Bill Ferris, Inside Private Equity: Thrills, spills and lessons by the author of Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained