Strategic
Acquirers
of Automotive
Companies

ABOUT

Green Light Growth Partners, LLC (“GLGP”) is a private equity firm that makes control equity investments within the automotive industry. We exclusively invest in opportunities where we can leverage our team’s extensive automotive sector knowledge, operating experience and industry relationships to support the companies that we acquire with more than just capital. We constantly endeavor to be great stewards of our portfolio companies and continually strive to be the investor of choice within the automotive industry.

WE ARE automotive investors. It’s all we do and, because it’s all we do, we can skip the Automotive 101 class. We are also well aware that APQP, K2XX/T1XX and PPAP aren’t cousins of R2-D2 and C-3PO.
WE AREN’T generalist investors. We aren’t industry agnostic. We feel strongly that you can’t dabble in automotive and fully understand the nuances of the industry; expertise is required to create long term, sustainable value.
WE ARE partners to owner-operators and management teams. We collaboratively develop a strategy for accelerated growth and value creation, which we then support by providing resources and aligned incentives.
WE AREN’T management and are not interested in running the day-to-day operations. We also don’t bestow a “one size fits all” private equity playbook onto management; each company is unique and should be treated as such.

WE ARE a Midwest team with Midwest values based in metro Detroit. We are transparent and we do what we say we’ll do. We prefer Levi’s® over cuff links and Woodward Avenue over Fifth Avenue.

WE AREN’T headquartered in a high rise office building in NYC, Los Angeles or Chicago. We tend to think those are nice places for financial investors, but not so much for automotive investors.
WE ARE strategic investors who take a comprehensive approach to value creation. We look to employ conservative capital structures to provide the flexibility needed to opportunistically capitalize on market opportunities.
WE AREN’T financial engineers who rely on aggressive capital structures (i.e., high debt levels) to generate short term (and often fleeting) returns. Basis points don’t get us nearly as excited as gear ratios and coefficients of friction.

We fill the void that exists between the two most common types of automotive acquirers: (1) competitors within the industry, aka strategic buyers; and (2) financial investors, aka private equity firms.

It’s what we call “Strategic Equity”
  • Post-close loss of identity and culture
  • Cost synergies (employee rationalization)
  • Confidentiality concerns (sharing info with a competitor)
  • Deep sector knowledge
  • Long term, value creation focus
  • Maintain brand identity and culture
  • Conservative use of debt financing
  • No competitive / confidentiality concerns
  • Limited, or no, sector knowledge
  • Short term, cash flow focus
  • Aggressive use of debt financing
  • Not embraced by OEMs

Josh Schulze

Managing Partner

248 312 8989

josh@glgp.com

Josh has over 20 years of professional experience focused on principal investing, M&A advisory, financial analysis, operations, corporate development and strategic planning within the automotive industry.

Prior to founding Green Light Growth Partners, Josh was a Senior Managing Director at Ernst & Young Capital Advisors, LLC where he led the firm’s US Automotive & Transportation Investment Banking practice and was the Automotive & Transportation Sector Leader for the Transaction Advisory Services practice across the Americas. 

Prior to joining Ernst & Young Capital Advisors, LLC, Josh worked for Platinum Equity with a focus on transaction execution and operational turnarounds of automotive portfolio companies throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Josh’s experience also includes M&A advisory and principal investing at Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc., corporate development and strategy within Eaton Corporation’s automotive division and product engineering and sales at Faurecia North America. 

Josh received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University (formerly GMI Engineering & Management Institute) and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

In addition to the investment team, we also leverage a deep bench of seasoned automotive industry executives who serve as advisors to the fund and provide extraordinary insights, market access and strategic guidance to each of our portfolio companies.

INVESTMENT PREFERENCES

Company Types

Sector

  • Automotive OE products or services (Tier 1, 2, 3)

Company Attributes

  • Strong management team
  • Niche player with product or process technology
  • Value creation opportunities (revenue or earnings) through additional resources or capital

Size & Geography

Financial

  • Revenue typically between $50m and $150m; no minimum for add-on acquisitions
  • EBITDA typically between $5m and $25m; no minimum for add- on acquisitions

Geography

  • Headquartered and majority of operations in the United States or Canada

Transaction Types & Structure

Transaction Types

  • Family / owner-operator succession planning
  • Management buyouts
  • Corporate divestitures
  • Bankruptcies / 363 sales

Transaction Structure

  • Leveraged buyouts for control (51% to 100%)

CONTACT

If you’re interested in learning more, please fill out the form, send us an email or give us a call

Telephone & Email

(248) 312-8989

info@glgp.com

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