PRIVATE EQUITY
INVESTING IN companies BEN FOGLE, PARTNER, MIDWEST GROWTH PARTNERS
Preserving Legacy
MIDWEST GROWTH PARTNERS EYES ACQUISITION OPPORTUNITIES Midwest Growth Partners, a seven-year-old private fund manager headquartered in West Des Moines, has entered the eastern Nebraska market by its add-on investment in Superior Metal Products, a Sarpy County CNC machining firm. MGP Partner Ben Fogle said SMP will join Van Becelaere Machine Works, based in Pittsburg, Kansas, as part of a precision machining platform supported by MGP. “With many of these transactions what we’re doing is preserving a legacy,” said Fogle, who opened MGP’s Omaha office in January 2020. Fogle, an Elkhorn resident and 20-year veteran in the fiduciary investment management field, said he’s looking to hire two additional analysts at MGP’s office at 3610 N. 163rd Plaza, Suite 102. “We’re targeting the addition of three to five investments (platforms) annually,” he said. “Our goal is to raise $200 million in 2022 for the continuation of our work.” MGP, as a private equity fund manager, is responsible for more than $154 million in private capital across two funds. The business seeks to make succession planning liquidity or growth investments in established companies.
Fogle, an Iowa native with an undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Northern Iowa and an MBA from the University of Iowa, said the Omaha Superior Metal Products transaction maintains a consistent thrust from MGP that seeks businesses that are profitable, with an owner that is lacking an exit plan for significant growth and a product or service that offers a definable market position. “What we’ve found is that most private equity funds avoid the rural marketplace — we prefer it,” Fogle said. He notes past stops in his career that include time as managing director of capital markets at Farm Credit Services of America in Omaha, as well as a director and investment officer at Principal Global Investors in Des Moines.
Growth in Omaha SMP, with a 30,000-square-foot plant and 50 employees between two shifts at 10708 S. 149th St. southwest of Omaha, specializes in medium-to-large production runs in 100-piece lot sizes and up. The firm founded in 1971 is ISO 9001 certified precision machining business currently serving agricultural, industrial and
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