With over $2.2 billion in assets under management, GenNx360 Capital Partners is one of the nation’s largest Black-owned private equity firms.
The New York based firm focuses on acquiring middle-market business services and industrial companies throughout North America. It partners with companies having proven and sustainable business models in expanding industries that are, or have the potential to be, market leaders with sustainable competitive advantages.
GenNx360 implements and supports value-enhancing organic and inorganic initiatives to accelerate growth, deliver cost efficiencies, and generate strong financial returns.
It all started with a casual conversation between friends at a barbecue.
What began as party chatter at the home of Lloyd Trotter’s daughter in 2004 quickly became a series of planning and reality sessions. Trotter, a legend within corporate and industrial management circles, had served as president and CEO of GE Industrial, a $28 billion business with nearly 80,000 employees across the globe. His friend, Ronald Blaylock founded and managed Blaylock & Company, one of the top investment banking firms in the country. Blaylock & Co. participated in transactions for a diverse, blue-chip roster of clients that included AT&T, Boeing, CIT, GE, Google, Time Warner, UPS, and Verizon, among other Fortune 500 companies.
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Trotter and Blaylock were joined by James Shepard and the late Arthur Harper, two high-powered GE senior managers. Shepard held the position of president and CEO of GE Infrastructure Sensing, a 3,200-employee-strong global business while Harper had rose to the position of president and CEO of GE Equipment Services, a $7 billion worldwide operation by the time he passed away in 2017. Together, they talked about the sacrifices and commitments required to build a private equity firm.
“We had worked on the thesis on why it would appeal to investors and how what we were bringing to private equity would be compelling to them. People want to be on teams that can win and that are sustainable. And frankly, at the top of that is a culture of ownership, a culture of winning, a culture of performing and a culture of no jerks. We’re big on inclusion because that’s how you get the best ideas. That’s how you get to challenge assumptions,” Blaylock said about the process of creating GenNx360.
The group spent months developing an approach to identify acquisition prospects. They focused on businesses where they had domain expertise, primarily industrial businesses. Their qualitative checklist for acquisition targets included achieving returns of 20% or more, a focus on investing in industrial manufacturing and business services companies with sustainable business models, historical underperformance, and family ownership. They set their transactions target within a range from $50 million to $200 million.
In 2006, GenNx360 Capital Partners, named to demonstrate a next-generation private equity firm focused on value creation through continuous improvement of portfolio companies, was established. The firm raised $600 million for its first fund from a group of A-list corporate pension funds including Fairview Capital and Princeton University. It closed on more than $535 million for Fund II in 2014, around $465.9 million for Fund III, and $600 million for Fund IV last year. GenNx360 also has an Aerospace Fund and Gear Fund.
Trotter and Blaylock have fulfilled their grand vision of attracting top African American financial and operating talent. GenNx360 has driven diversity in areas of business where there has been a noticeable absence of managers of color.
The firm has brought in young African Americans to train as investors, to become general partners in the firm, and ascend to senior management at the companies that they acquire. Its Managing Partner, Daphne Dufresne has over 25 years of investment experience as founding partner and Managing Director at RLJ Equity Partners (RLJ), Partner at Parish Capital Advisors, and Principal at Weston Presidio, among others.
