West Monroe enters the fray for PE co-investments

West Monroe Partners, a business and consulting firm, has established a co-investment group that will join transactions with its private equity clients.

The effort is being led by Chris Darragh, vice-president at West Monroe, and managing partner Brian Jacobsen, who joined in June from Grand Crossing Capital.

Grand Crossing is the investment company of the family that owned Wilton Brands, a baking, cake decorating and candy-making company.

Chicago-based West Monroe Partners conducts due diligence for its PE clients and their portfolio companies and leads post-close engagements for them.

The co-investments will be in transactions on which West Monroe has already done due diligence and where the firm is going to lead the post-close transition, Jacobsen said at Buyouts Insider’s Family Office Connect event in Chicago last week.

West Monroe will help evaluate and implement technology upgrades, add back-office capabilities to carveouts, and do post-merger systems integration, he said.

West Monroe’s co-investment group will invest across industries like healthcare, software and technology, energy, utilities and industrials, Jacobsen said.

The firm wants to spend $1 million to $5 million on each co-investment, and make five to 10 co-investments annually, he said.

The team declined to name the PE firms with which it wants to work on deals.

Action Item: Read more on West Monroe Partners here https://bit.ly/2NrcMsN

Update: This article has been updated to specify Jacobsen and Darragh’s titles.