VSS Capital Partners Announces Strategic Investment from Pinnacle Group

Elevates Four VSS Professionals

VSS Capital Partners (“VSS”), a private investment firm investing in the healthcare, education, and business services industries, is pleased to announce that Pinnacle Investment Management Group Limited (ASX: PNI) (“Pinnacle”) has made a strategic minority investment in the firm. Concurrently, VSS has expanded its Partnership and leadership team, elevating four seasoned senior professionals to Partners. The four executives - Trent Hickman, Patrick Turner, Andrew Goscinski, and David Fann - join Jeffrey Stevenson, Managing Partner, as shareholders of VSS Capital Partners.

“As we enter a new phase of growth and seek to deliver our investment solutions to new markets, Pinnacle is a logical partner that enables us access to a world-class global distribution platform and extend the reach of VSS’s private markets offering,” said Jeffrey Stevenson, Managing Partner at VSS. “We are confident both clients, and the management teams we partner with, will benefit from our partnership with Pinnacle.”

The mutually beneficial strategic partnership with Pinnacle comes at a time as investors globally seek greater diversification across private market asset classes and regions, with private credit and the North America region continuing to see strong interest. VSS plans to capitalize on these opportunities to build out its client base globally, leveraging decades of private investment experience to serve clients well. The investment and strategic partnership with Pinnacle will serve to also add new products complementary to VSS’s core Structured Capital Funds in coming years and support new strategic initiatives.

“The VSS structured (“flexible”) capital platform serving the lower middle market is well established and poised for growth in the North American marketplace,” said Ian Macoun, Managing Director at Pinnacle. “We believe Pinnacle’s global distribution capabilities and our world-class middle office and fund infrastructure platform will be an asset to VSS as it aims to scale over the long term.”

“At this juncture in the firm’s evolution, this is also the right time to extend the VSS Partnership to several of our seasoned senior executives in recognition of their many valuable contributions to the firm’s growth over the years,” said Stevenson.

Concurrent with the expansion of the firm’s Partnership, VSS is announcing the promotion of Trent Hickman to Co-Managing Partner. Hickman, who joined VSS in 1999, will assume additional responsibility co-managing the next VSS Structured Capital Fund alongside Jeffrey Stevenson, building on over 20 years of experience as a successful private equity investor in fast growing private companies. Patrick Turner and Andy Goscinski, who joined VSS in 2014 and 1998 respectively, have been promoted to Senior Managing Director. David Fann, Senior Managing Director and Head of Investor Relations, joined VSS earlier in the year to help expand and build the VSS platform. He previously was Vice Chairman of Apogem Capital, the private equity and private credit arm of New York Life Investment Management with over $41 billion of AUM.

“I am exceptionally proud of the strong leadership team we have in place, which positions VSS well for the long term and as we embark on the next phase of growth. Importantly, this step also creates a meaningful pathway for VSS’s next generation of leaders,” added Stevenson.

With over three decades of experience supporting growing, lower U.S. middle market businesses leveraging a disciplined buy-and-build approach, VSS has supported over 600 add-on acquisitions for its 101 portfolio companies across 8 funds. VSS’s Structured Capital strategy represents a unique hybrid approach, offering the combination of non-control junior capital with the benefits of active partnership and industry expertise. The Structured Capital funds aim to achieve substantial and consistent risk-adjusted returns with the downside protection associated with debt and traditional mezzanine investments and the potential for upside gain associated with private equity investing.

VSS recently ranked #2 for all private debt funds globally, according to PitchBook’s 2023 Global Manager Performance Score League Tables, as of December 31, 2023, and published on July 30, 2024.