About us

Matsu Partners ("Matsu") is a privately-owned entity launched in June 2024, seeking to invest in a single company in South-East Asia.

We target firms in operation for several years, with loyal customers, but where we can partner with management to unlock significant, unrealised growth. 

This follows from combining management's expertise with applying best practices found in large corporations, to modernising and elevating performance.

We have three key principles:

  • Partnership: Our model is based on working with existing owners to realise the full potential of their business. Their expertise combined with ours is 1+1 = 3.
  • Empathy: This starts with caring for employees - aligning, incentivising, and sponsoring people to realise their potential - a happy workforce breeds success.
  • Technology and Data Science: This is core to our DNA - as this can propel a small business into a leading competitive position. We are operators and have used these techniques to find new customers, realise further revenues from existing customers, and significantly reduce internal admin and paperwork. 

Investment criteria

When examining an investment, we pursue one of two pathways:

Pathway 1:

  • A business with annual profitability of > US$2m

Pathway 2: 

  • Revenues of US$1m+ per annum with owners open to combining with other firms to build a bigger company

Criteria important to us:

  • Ownership: We prefer 50:50 partnerships with owners, but are open to 100% if an owner wishes to sell their business outright
  • Management: Partnering with owners to unlock growth. For majority ownership, a viable middle management team needs to be in place 
  • Sectors: Business Services, Education, and Healthcare. We are open to selectively looking at other sectors
  • Geographies targeted: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Hong Kong 
  • Performance: 3 years of revenue growth and stable EBITDA margins
  • Valuation: Where sellers continue to have "skin-in-the game" - if they believe in their business, then we want them to share in its upside. 

Contact

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