We're not looking to own a company, just participating.
Chattanoogan Casey Hammontree says that small companies are key to Resolute Capital Partners, which invests in lower middle-market businesses throughout the United States.
"Small business is our life blood," says Hammontree, who's a partner in Nashville-based Resolute Capital. "We're willing to go to smaller companies and work with them."
Casey Hammontree
Bill NutterResolute typically invests between $3 million to $25 million in subordinated debt and equity to support a company's later-stage growth, management or leveraged buyouts, strategic acquisitions and recapitalizations.
Hammontree is a Chattanooga area native and still lives here, noting he talks frequently with partner Bill Nutter, who works in Nashville, and travels from the Scenic City to visit companies.
An East Tennessee State University graduate with a master's degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hammontree lived in Boston working for an investment firm. He returned to Chattanooga in 2005 and then joined Resolute in 2011.
Currently, Resolute is making new investments out of Resolute Capital Partners Fund IV, a $321 million fund licensed as a Small Business Investment Company.
Resolute continues to support existing portfolio companies of Resolute Capital Partners Fund III, in which it invested $274 million across 37 portfolio companies.
"We make an initial investment and then infuse additional capital," Hammontree says. "We're not looking to own a company, just participating."
At the same time, he says, Resolute is eyeing fairly long-term investments.
"We're married for at least five years," Hammontree quips.
But, with the experience within Resolute, it provides the expertise necessary to offer strategic and tactical support to the companies in which it invests.
Nutter said Resolute is diversified across a variety of company segments, and the fund is often easier to deal with than banks.
"Many companies want to invest earnings in people and growth rather than pay back a bank," he says.
The two partners say that they've established a network by which they find companies in which to invest. While geographically diverse, Resolute has invested more than $100 million in companies in Tennessee over the past six years, they say.
"We see a lot of opportunities in Tennessee," Hammontree says. But, he adds that Resolute currently has no active investments in Chattanooga, though there are a couple of companies in discussions with the firm.
At the same time, not every company is a fit, the partners say, adding they're focused on the long-term success of the portfolio businesses and the realization of profits for its investors.