Reflections on 6 years in Livonia

When I joined the Livonia team back in 2015, my colleague Mindaugas told me that working in private equity requires a lot of patience, and the learning curve is slow compared to new-project-every-week type of work in advisory, which was my background at the time. My own experience after six flying years is that the learning curve has remained as steep as ever – in private equity one has to make investment decisions weighing a number of considerations, a form of art which can never be perfected but only improved – and it is a never-ending challenge to improve the decision making.

The development of the Baltic companies over the recent years has been extraordinary. Everyone knows about start-up success stories from the region, but there are so many companies championing mature industries. We are fortunate to have some examples in our portfolio, for example Freor, which has met and surpassed our expectations in how quickly it has been able to win new clients and grab market share from competitors many times its size. I am grateful to have played a part in the growth story of Thermory – 5x revenue growth with three acquisitions in less than 5 years. It is gratifying to see Thermory continue to grow and flourish after our exit. Ambition and grit of Baltic entrepreneurs is truly a special attribute which has advanced Baltic businesses and made their names known internationally. I have certainly grown to appreciate this factor when building investment cases in Livonia, much more so than when I started.

Significant foreign investment has flown into the Baltics over the last thirty years, resulting in a great deal of strong and mature businesses owned by foreign private investors or corporations. I believe that more of these companies will translate into acquisition opportunities for private equity in the future. For example, our recent investment CSUB was founded by Norwegian entrepreneurs who recognized the advantages of investing heavily into a manufacturing site in Klaip?da, which over time became the major production hub for the group. The symbiosis between client-facing management team in Norway and strong manufacturing capabilities in Lithuania is one of the many reasons I have been excited to discover the investment opportunity, and now to participate in the next phase of CSUB’s growth unlocking the potential of composite materials in aquaculture, energy, construction, and other applications.

Being the first hire of Livonia, I have seen the firm develop over the years into a proper organization. Our investment criteria and judgment have continuously evolved – some of the opportunities we seriously considered years ago wouldn’t fit our standards anymore. I am grateful to my colleagues for all the rigorous discussions and teamwork over the years, and I am thankful to have been promoted to partner recently. I am certain that this is just the beginning of a long story ahead and that our firm will become only stronger over the years.