Team

Team: Links strong competences in a One Deal Team

A team of top-performing individuals with a strong sourcing network, solid sector expertise and clear responsibilities ensures a unique teamwork. Significant investment by team members guarantees alignment of interests.

 

North Sea Capital team history

 

In 2000, Lauge Sletting (Managing Partner) formed a team to manage Nordea’s new fund of funds business. In 2006, the team performed an organisational spin-off to found North Sea Capital. The transition from captive to independent private equity advisor has been effectuated and, today, our firm is a completely independent advisor.

 

 

 

How we work

Our team strives to find the best-performing private equity managers globally in order to advise on the best investments opportunities. The entire team works as a single entity, integrating our long-standing investment knowledge and skills to identify the best possible investment opportunities. Driven by cooperation and fact-based analysis, we provide our advice following an investment decision process which is based on broad and solid sector expertise and deep operational understanding of transforming businesses in a regional context.

 

Each member of the team is responsible for the active deal flow of an area and an investment type by using all possible sources. On entering our office, all deals flow directly to the responsible team member who ensures compliance of a number of explicit requirements. After the initial steps, the entire team is responsible for every investment. This means that no single person is responsible for selecting an investment option.

We have a very systematic and structured analytical process. This means that initial due diligence on prospect funds is always conducted in the same way, regardless of who has primary responsibility for the due diligence assignment. Our analytical approach to due diligence enables us to obtain an overview of the fund very quickly, identify critical issues meriting further investigation, and determine to what extent the fund has created alpha. This quantitative approach is always the starting point before we move on to the more qualitative parts of the due diligence where we list issues and team merits, and define strategy etc. The bottom line is that the quantitative process and qualitative ranking are effective screening tools for potential investments that speak the same language as a basis for judgements.

An investment must be approved by the entire investment committee. Input from all members is heard and if someone raises a yellow flag, we take steps to investigate further, irrespective of who raised the flag. Team members work together rather than compete “to get their deal done” and there is no one-man show. Everyone works towards the common goal of making the best possible investments without any pressure on making investments within specific regions, strategies or timelines.

Our complete independence and the fact that our remuneration relates to the performance of the advised funds of funds means that we work exclusively for the long-term benefit of our advisory clients with clear alignment of interests. We are very transparent and offer detailed quarterly reviews of the portfolios that we advise on and the private equity market.

 

Team characteristics

  • Complementary sector expertise and transactional skills
  • Strong cohesion on executing on strategy and client service
  • Significant investment by independent team aligns interest
  • Long-term committed and focused
  • Cooperative:
    • Internally (teamwork/No one-man show)
    • Externally (help and educate clients)
  • Team members’ success criteria: Make the best investment recommendations (recommend/decline), not the most
  • Process-oriented work style