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wesself2's avatar

Great article! How about Röko?

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Ray Myers's avatar

Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't heard about Roku, so I will look into them.

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wesself2's avatar

The former CEO of Lifco started Röko in 2019. Therefore, the management is highly experienced. Instead of focussing only on a few sectors like Lifco, Röko is "sector agnostic", which enables them to pick companies from a larger pool.

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Ray Myers's avatar

Interesting. However, I think "sector agnostic" might not be the best thing in a serial acquirer. I think the most successful ones specialise in a few sectors. It's important to accumulate a knowledge base and have a vision where to generate synergies. Like CSU in software and Heico in aerospace.

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Neural Foundry's avatar

Great rundown of serial acquirers! The Roper section really resonates becuse their transformation from industrial to software is underappreciated. What I find fasinating is how they've managed to maintain that disciplined capital allocation while completely shifting the business mix. Most companies struggle with that kind of pivot but Roper executed it over decades through hundreds of small deals. The comparison to Constellation is apt, but I think Roper's willingness to divest legacy industrial assets and redeploy that capital into higher quality software verticals shows an even more ruthles focus on ROIC. The decentralization point you made is critical too, without that autonomy those acquisitions would probably get bogged down in corporate bureaucracy and lose what made them valuable in the first place.

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