Metis Strategic
Investments.
Experienced Investing
In Metis Strategic Investments we use our restructuring expertise and experience as our investment thesis — we deploy our own capital either to support Metis Strategic Advisors’ restructuring mandates, or to invest into opportunities where there is a restructuring element to the investment story.
Why we’re doing this
Advice alone is not always the answer.
For years, Metis has advised businesses through various degrees of operational underperformance, liquidity constraints and distress — restructuring balance sheets and turning around operations. That work has given us something rare: a close-up view of exactly what it takes to create value from underperforming businesses.
There are situations where the right answer is not simply more advice. It includes patient capital, decisive ownership participation and hands-on execution. Metis Strategic Investments gives us the ability, where we have sufficient conviction, to invest our own capital alongside the experience and capabilities we bring as restructuring advisers. It aligns our interests directly with those of the investee company.
How we invest
Not a fund.
We don’t run a committed pool of capital against a fixed mandate — we assess opportunities individually, on their own merits, and decide whether to invest on a case-by-case basis. This allows us to be patient in waiting for the right opportunities, those that fit our particular skill set.
Our own capital. Skin in the game.
We invest our own capital, and can supplement that with the capital of selected co-investors. Our shareholders have real capital at risk. That enables us to move with the speed and conviction of a principal investor whilst simultaneously providing our strategic input into a transaction.
Independence and integrity are fundamental to the way Metis operates.
Adding “investor” to “advisor” means that potential conflicts need to be identified and managed carefully. We take that responsibility seriously. For example, we would never take an equity position in a business where a Metis partner or consultant is acting as the appointed business rescue practitioner. In all other situations we assess potential conflicts upfront to ensure that our roles and interests are clear, transparent and appropriate before proceeding.
What we invest in
Generally industry agnostic. We look at the business and the opportunity case by case — there is often value in places one would least expect.
Predominantly South Africa. A deep understanding of the structural, financial and legal landscape, and the ability to be meticulously hands-on.
Some degree of control, or a position that gives us meaningful influence over the decisions required to execute the investment case.
Lower mid-market, typically up to R300 million. As we are happy to co-invest, there is technically no upper limit.
Generally annual revenue above R100 million — but in a distressed environment turnover is a poor guide. We look through to the underlying business.
Clear scope to create value through operational improvement, recapitalisation, restructuring or active ownership. We prefer to engage before a formal insolvency process has commenced.
How we work and what we bring
Together with new capital (ours, and that of our pool of co-investors), we bring the same hands-on, multidisciplinary approach that has defined our advisory work: rigorous assessment, a clear investment and turnaround plan, and a multi-disciplinary team that works side by side with management to execute jointly agreed restructuring initiatives.
Our aim in every transaction is to create a sustainable business that emerges stronger for all of its stakeholders, ourselves included.
Have an opportunity we should look at?
We want to hear from business owners, boards, shareholders, lenders, advisers and co-investors who see an opportunity where capital, restructuring experience and active ownership can unlock value.
Whether it is an underperforming business, a shareholder transition, a non-core asset, a recapitalisation or a more complex special situation, talk to us.
Co-investors are admitted at Metis’s sole and absolute discretion, and only once they have successfully completed our KYC and FICA vetting process.