In December 2011 Direct Capital completed the sixth investment from its Direct Capital IV fund into Hiway Group Limited, New Zealand’s leading provider of specialist roading and ground stabilisation services.

Hiway Group was established in 1982 and is the family business of Peter Boocock and his sons, John and Paul.  The investment by Direct Capital funded the sell-down by Peter Boocock of his shareholding to facilitate his succession plans.  John and Paul Boocock, along with other existing management, continue their shareholdings and management of the business.

The company is based in Silverdale, Auckland with national operations employing more than 100 staff.  The company also operates in Australia and Fiji.
 
Hiway Group has a long and successful history.  The company has led the way in introducing modern techniques and specialist equipment used in stabilising the ground works associated with road construction and civil works.  Hiway Group operates through two main operating companies, Hiway Stabilizers and Hiway GeoTechnical deploying a number of specialist technologies including deep soil mixing, soil nailing, aggregate modification, sub-grade stabilisation, fill drying and foamed bitumen recycling.  The company also offers a number of environmental contracting services including soil recycling and site remediation.

In September 2011 Direct Capital acquired a 30% shareholding in leading forestry services group, PF Olsen Group.

Headquartered in Rotorua and with 15 offices across New Zealand and Australia, PF Olsen is Australasia’s largest independent provider of professional forestry services.  The company is substantially owned by its management and employees.

PF Olsen manages over 170,000 hectares of plantation forests and harvesting planning for more than 3.6 million tonnes of logs annually.  As a part of its service offering, the Company provides forestry management, harvesting planning and engineering, seed and containerised cutting sales from company-owned and leased orchards and nurseries, and advisory services.  PF Olsen contracts out the physical harvesting and tending operations to third parties.  The Company’s forestry clients included timber investment management organizations (‘TIMOs’), local forestry investors, government agencies, and corporate forest owners.

The company has an excellent track record of success over a long period, geographic scale and diversity across the New Zealand and Australian forestry sectors, and significant growth potential with increasing harvestable wood volumes and carbon-trading incentivised investment in new forest plantings.

The investment in PF Olsen is the fifth investment from the Direct Capital IV fund which raised $325 million in 2009 for investment into private companies. 

In July 2011, Direct Capital completed the fourth investment from its Direct Capital IV fund into Scales Corporation. 

Based in Christchurch and with operations throughout New Zealand, Scales is one of New Zealand's oldest companies dating its origins back to 1897 when it formed its shipping operation to take on the 'old country' encumbants on behalf of New Zealand sheep farmers.

Today, Scales is a public unlisted company with revenues of close to $200 million and a permanent workforce of 375.  It is one of the country's leading horticulture and primary sector processing, exporter and logistics businesses.  It operates Mr Apple, the largest grower, packer and exporter of apples in New Zealand; Meateor Foods exporting processed meat for the international pet food industry; and Storage and Logistics, New Zealand's largest third-party provider of temperature controlled storage facilities.

Along with co-investment from Direct Capital's Limited Partners, Direct Capital has acquired a 79.7% shareholding in the company and is looking forward to supporting its continued export growth, particularly into the fast-expanding Asian market. 

In June 2010 Direct Capital completed the second investment from its Direct Capital IV fund, into well-known real estate services provider, Bayley Corporation Limited.

From its beginnings in 1973 the Bayley family has built the industry’s market leader. Professionally managed and with a long history of profitable growth achieved through its national franchise partners and agency owned network of more than a thousand agents, it’s little wonder the company enjoys the top market share in the commercial and industrial sectors and a large business in residential, rural and lifestyle sectors.

Direct Capital invested in to Cavalier Wool Holdings Limited (CWH) in December 2010 and the investment is the third to be completed from its current fund, Direct Capital IV.

CWH is New Zealand's largest wool scouring operator and is the country's only independent "commission only" scourer.  CWH is a key service provider to the New Zealand wool industry, processing "greasy" wool into "clean" wool and condense packing it into bales ready for export on behalf of wool merchants and end users such as carpet manufacturers.  The company operates from two sites - Awatoto in Napier (North Island) and Washdyke in Timaru (South Island).  An important by-product of the cleaning process called wool grease is also extracted and exported to manufacturers in Asia and Europe who refine it into lanolin for use in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

Direct Capital acquired a 25% minority shareholding in the business.  It was attracted to the company as it has international scale and significant growth opportunities in processing regional wool clip from other countries prior to re-exporting to carpet and apparel mills in Asia and Europe. 
 
            

Direct Capital completed a $24 million investment in Transaction Services in January 2010. Operating under the brands Debitsuccess and FFA Paysmart, Transaction Services is the largest third-party recurring payment processing company in Australasia.
 
Transaction Services manages the payment processing function for clients across a wide range of industries that include health and fitness facilities, sports clubs, property management companies, maintenance providers, home service providers, and insurance companies.

Many customers want the flexibility of paying for services by direct debit, but it’s a costly overhead for clubs and businesses to offer. Transaction Services has the technology, infrastructure and systems to provide this service to clients in a cost-effective way, and has been doing so since 1994. Today, the company annually processes more than 13 million transactions on behalf of more than 2,000 clients, from their 500,000 customers in New Zealand and Australia.

Fishpond is one of Australasia's largest online retailers, offering multiple product categories including books, CDs, DVDs, games, toys, and consumer electronics.  Established in 2004, Fishpond operates from its distribution centre in Auckland and employes more than 50 staff.  

Product categories include: books (offering more than 3.3 million titles); CDs and DVDs (with over 310,000 titles); and the addition of new product categories such as games (more than 2,500 video games, consoles and accessories), toys (with popular titles like Lego, National Geographic and Nerf), and an electronics category offering over 1,000 popular consumer electronic gadgets.

Direct Capital acquired a minority shareholding in the company in October 2009 and was attracted to the strength and experience of the management team, led by founder, Daniel Robertson, as well as the significant growth and profitability the company had achieved since its establishment.  Fishpond has doubled its revenues every year since it began and has been profitable every year of operation.     

New Zealand King Salmon is the country’s largest salmon producer supplying both the domestic and export markets.  Based in Nelson and with hatcheries, farms and processing facilities across Marlborough and Canterbury, the company is highly integrated from brood stock management right through to distribution of product through its well-recognised consumer brands, Seasmoke, Regal and Southern Ocean.

In September 2008 Direct Capital invested alongside management to acquire a 45 per cent shareholding in New Zealand King Salmon.

The New Zealand King Salmon Company Limited was formed in 1996 with the privatisation and merger of New Zealand’s two largest salmon companies, Southern Ocean Seafood Limited and Regal Salmon Limited.  The Company is ultimately owned by the Tiong Group, one of the largest private companies in Malaysia with substantial global investments in forestry, property and the media.  New Zealand King Salmon is New Zealand’s largest integrated aquaculture company and the largest global farmer of the premium Chinook species of salmon.  Rich in Omega 3 and other nutrients, salmon is one of the fastest growing protein categories.  The company employs 415 staff and operates six sea-farm sites in Marlborough Sounds, two hatcheries in Waikoropupu Springs and Tentburn; and four processing factories in Nelson.

In August 2008 Direct Capital acquired a 30% interest in one of Australasia’s leading menswear retail chains, Rodd & Gunn Limited. 

Rodd & Gunn has a retail chain of 55 stores and concessions in malls and on high streets including 34 stores across Australia and 21 stores throughout New Zealand.  The retailer has a long-established brand and targets the premium male customer. Following Direct Capital’s investment, managing director Mike Beagley retains a 70% shareholding.

In May 2008 Direct Capital acquired a minority shareholding in Shears & Mac Limited through the merger of Camm 4 and Shears & Mak. Direct Capital’s investment is to provide expansion capital for the company to broaden its services beyond manufacturing to include the associated installation works and to pursue strategic acquisitions.

Shears & Mac is New Zealand’s leading joinery manufacturer and shopfitter.  The company operates out of large modern, automated, purpose-built premises located in Penrose, Auckland.  The company combines the latest CNC machinery along with integated manufacturing software resulting in precision manufacturing and highly efficient operations.
Everything made at Shears & Mac is drawn, componentised, programmed and then CNC machined.  This provides consistently reliable high quality products.  It results in greater accuracy and therefore greater cost efficiency. 

Shears & Mac employs over 100 staff including quantity surveyors, draughtsmen, spray painters, cabinet makers, and carpenters.  The company serves a range of national and international retail, hospitality, and commercial customers, including Gucci, Coffee Club, Crabtree & Evelyn, DFS, Kimberleys, Louis Vuitton, Max Fashions, Mississippi, Mont Blanc, OPSM, Overland Shoes, Pascoes, Stewart Dawsons, Sunglasses Hut, Watches of Switzerland, Gloria Jeans Coffee, and Air New Zealand.

GoBus Limited (‘GoBus’) is a leading provider of public transport services in the Waikato region, providing urban, school and charter/tour bus services. GoBus was formed in 2003 from the amalgamation of four local bus companies ‘Blue Worth’, ‘Simpson’, ‘Hodgson’ and ‘HCB’. The Company now employs 460 people, and operates a fleet of 410 vehicles, 4 workshop facilities and 8 depots around the Waikato region.

Direct Capital’s investment in December 2007 facilitated the replacement of a founding financial investor. Other founding shareholders and the GoBus management team have retained a significant investment in GoBus and continue to manage the company.

The public transport sector has several positive fundamental drivers influencing growth including demographic trends, socio-behavioural trends, and increasing government support and investment. Significant further opportunities to grow GoBus have been identified.

Stratex is one of Australasia's leading suppliers of products that contain paper, foil, and polymers. Stratex has a strong market presence in food packaging, industrial packaging, and building products utilizing a range of coating, laminating, printing, and tray forming technology in Australia and New Zealand. It is well known for its high quality and excellent customer service.

The business has been in existence since 1969 when it originally coated paper for milk powder bags.

Today Stratex has manufacturing facilities in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne and sales offices in Melbourne and Brisbane.

In 2007 Stratex acquired Trans Tec, a division of Allkotes. Located in Melbourne, Trans Tec specialises in extrusion coatings on light weight materials, making products for use in Thermal laminating and food packaging.

The Auckland factory, in New Zealand, houses state-of-the-art extrusion laminating technology that processes a variety of polymers, foils, and papers that are sourced from throughout the world.

On 1 May 2007 Direct Capital announced that it has partnered with senior management in the succession management buyout of Stratex Limited.

Direct Capital was attracted by the strong market position, capable management and progress made in building a trans-Tasman business.

Business
NZP manufactures specialty chemicals (largely pharmaceutical intermediates) for some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, and also produces a range of ingredients used in dietary supplements.

NZP’s core competence is in the manufacture of natural biochemicals (primarily from animal by-products) under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) conditions which ensures its products conform to pharmaceutical industry quality assurance standards. Almost all NZP’s revenues are achieved from export markets.

Strategy
Direct Capital acquired a shareholding of 51% with the remaining 49% continuing to be owned by the management and staff of NZP and strategic investor Shin Nippon Yakugyo, a Japanese specialty chemicals business.

Financing for Direct Capital’s acquisition included the capital expenditure funding required by NZP to build a new factory to manufacture glycotherapeutic intermediates (glycotherapeutics are a fast growing category of the global pharmaceuticals market and of increasing significance to NZP’s business). Construction commenced in 2006 on the site of the existing head office and manufacturing plant in Linton near Palmerston North.