Approach
Firm Overview
Rouge Lake is a privately held group seeking to acquire businesses with attractive growth and strong cash flow dynamics to own, operate, and continue building for the long-term. Our priority is to provide owners seeking liquidity and a transition out of daily management with a reliable and trusted partner focused on preserving their legacy.
What We Offer
We offer a unique solution for owners looking to retire, move on to new ventures, or take a more focused role. Post-transaction, we intend to take a direct management role with a commitment to building value brick by brick as an on-the-ground operator. Given the breadth of our experience closing transactions, we can offer an accelerated deal process and flexible transaction structuring. Further, we have committed capital readily available, both personally and from a defined investor group.
Why Partner with Rouge Lake?
We view a transaction and ownership transition as a partnership with the business owner and management team. The strategy of partnering and mutually aligning incentives yields greater success and fulfillment for all parties. What we are not, is a private equity firm or a strategic competitor where cutting cost through “operational efficiencies” or “synergies” are the first order of business. We are a long-term investor with patient capital seeking to acquire and continue growing businesses. We also do not have a forced timeline and refuse to accept short-term thinking to maximize near-term profits in lieu of investing in long-term success.
Chris Sarkesian, Rouge Lake’s Founder and Managing Member, is an experienced investor and entrepreneur with significant strategic, transactional, and investing experience. Rouge Lake is further supported by an advisory network comprised of industry executives, senior investment professionals, and seasoned entrepreneurs across each focus industry who add tremendous operational and strategic value.
How Rouge Lake is differentiated:
Speed: We are quick decision makers and will move quickly to structure and close transactions
Complexity & Flexibility: We take pride in our ability to work through complexity, while maintaining flexibility in how we transact
Experience: We have extensive background in strategy, M&A, and private investing
Advisory Network: We maintain a deep bench of advisors supporting the firm with operational, strategic, and investing expertise
Our Approach to Building Businesses & Creating Value
Running a business is hard work. We have the experience, support, and entrepreneurial drive to not only understand what makes a business tick, but to develop strategies in partnership with management and our advisors that will continue to drive the business forward. We endeavor to preserve your legacy and continue building the business simultaneously. Key value creation levers:
Pursuing new product categories or service channels
Expanding into new geographies or verticals
Acquiring businesses that are complementary, both strategically and culturally
Driving productivity to improve operating leverage
Aligning incentives internally and externally throughout the business
Thematic Opportunities
Centered around four broad industries (Industrials, Materials, Consumer, and Business Services), Rouge Lake has a number of thematic areas of focus as well. Thematic opportunities encompass areas where we have deep domain expertise coupled with what we believe are powerful underlying secular growth trends. Five thematic focus areas on our radar:
Aerospace
Defense & Government Services
Data Center Equipment & Services
Food Equipment & Services
Facilities Services