Transactions
A proven track record of success.
IFG Asset Management, LLC sourced, advised, and directly co-invested in Viridis Chemical Company. IFG assisted Viridis in securing a significant equity commitment from a leading Houston-based energy infrastructure private equity firm, EIV Capital. IFG also co-invested in the transaction.
Since its launch in February 2021, Viridis Chemical has gone from a start-up chemical company to a world-class manufacturer of renewable, 100% biobased, low-carbon ethyl acetate with growing sales throughout North America and Europe.
Viridis’ 100% biobased ETAC is marketed worldwide by HELM AG, one of the world’s largest chemical distribution companies. This partnership with HELM AG gives Viridis access to an international sales force, introducing Viridis’ high-quality, low-carbon, sustainability ethyl acetate story to customers and prospects across the globe in various industries, including paints and coatings, adhesives, packaging, personal care, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals.
Viridis Chemical’s ethyl acetate is a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-certified, biobased product meeting all requirements under the USDA BioPreferred® Program. Traditionally, ethyl acetate has been manufactured from fossil fuel-based resources.
Viridis received International Sustainability & Carbon Certification PLUS (ISCC PLUS) for its manufacturing facility in Columbus, Nebraska. Products certified to the ISCC PLUS standard assure companies, brand owners, and consumers that high sustainability requirements have been met. Additionally, in June 2023, Viridis received the Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) 2023 Product Innovation Award in the Small and Medium-sized Business category.
IFG Managing Partner, Turner Smith, is a member of the Board of Directors.
IFG served as exclusive sell-side financial advisor to Woerner Equity Group in the sale of their wholly owned farming operation known as Canon Realty Company (or the “Farm”).
The Farm is located in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado and has produced small grains and potatoes for several decades. The Farm is made up of approximately 2,000 acres consisting of 11 center pivot sprinkler irrigated quarter sections, dry rangeland acreage, a custom machine shed, several grain storage bins, and various buildings and improvements.
Woerner Equity Group is a subsidiary of Woerner Holdings, LP, a family-owned investment company based in West Palm Beach, FL which owns and operates several companies in the agriculture & real estate sectors.
IFG assisted Ambassador Meat Distributors, Inc. through an investment banking consulting engagement to successfully source a new commercial bank lending relationship to finance strategic growth initiatives aimed at expanding production capacity to better serve the Company’s growing customer base across all segments.
Ambassador Meat Distributors, Inc. is a family owned and operated business that started in 1973 with a love of great food, made of clean and wholesome ingredients. The Company specializes in producing specialty beef, poultry, and pork products, both raw and fully-cooked via sous vide. Utilizing the traditional “water-bath” sous vide method of cooking produces the most consistent, highest-quality products available. The Company has a true passion and dedication for producing hand-made products from authentic “scratch” recipes, understanding that there are no shortcuts to quality. The founding family’s reputation is in every bite.
IFG led a private equity financing via an IFG-sponsored SPV for CleanFiber, LLC with proceeds used to expand the Company’s state-of-the-art cellulose insulation production facility in Buffalo, NY.
CleanFiber uses a unique and patented process to produce environmentally-friendly, high performance building insulation from waste corrugated material. CleanFiber insulation is cleaner, more uniform and lower in dust than competitive newsprint cellulosic products.
CleanFiber benefits from the surging production of corrugated containers related to e-commerce, as well as declining volumes of recycled newsprint, the principal feedstock used by existing cellulosic insulation manufacturers. CleanFiber’s growth plans include a multi-plant expansion program.
IFG Managing Partner, Turner Smith, is a member of the Board of Directors.
IFG Asset Management, LLC serves as Portfolio Manager for the Landmark Real Assets Fund LP. The Landmark Real Assets Fund is allocated to 12 private equity managers in the energy, infrastructure, natural resources and timber sectors.
The Fund is currently in harvest mode as the investment programs of the underlying managers are coming to conclusion. The Landmark Real Assets Fund is invested with leading managers such as ArcLight Capital, EIG Global Energy Partners, Energy Capital Partners, Energy & Minerals Group, Natural Gas Partners, Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, RMS Timber and others.
The Fund has provided its LP’s with diverse exposure to upstream oil & gas, mid-stream energy infrastructure, independent power, transportation & logistics infrastructure, telecommunications infrastructure, metals & mining and timber.
Other Activities
IFG served as financial advisor to Allotrope Partners, a project developer that plans to use an innovative technology to produce low CI score cellulosic ethanol using waste wood and Ag residues. IFG advised Allotrope with respect to financing options at both the holding company and project levels.
The project, Allotrope Cellulosic Development Company (ACDC), intends to repurpose legacy Northern California biomass power plants into facilities that will produce renewable cellulosic ethanol from wood and Ag waste residuals using proprietary technology provided by Axens. Axens is a worldwide group that provides a complete range of solutions for the conversion of oil and biomass to cleaner fuels, for the production and purification of major petrochemical intermediates as well as for gas treatment and conversion options. ACDC may also pursue select greenfield opportunities.
Allotrope Partners is an internationally focused clean energy advisory firm specializing in emerging markets and technologies. Allotrope is accelerating the transition to a sustainable energy future by identifying, catalyzing, and advancing clean energy initiatives and investments that have transformational impacts on the clean economy.
IFG has maintained a long-term relationship with TechMet, a Dublin based company focused on securing a global supply chain of technology metals critical to the continued innovation around electrification of energy markets.
TechMet is a private industrial company that is building controlling or significant minority positions in world-class projects across the technology metal supply chains of Nickel, Cobalt, Lithium, Rare Earth Metals, Vanadium, Tungsten and Tin critical to the future growth of Electric Vehicles, Energy Storage and Renewable Energy. TechMet is also a significant shareholder in Li-Cycle, a leading Lithium-Ion battery recycling company.
IFG has worked with Water Asset Management (“WAM”) in connection with their private market strategy focused on senior water rights in the Southwestern United States.
WAM, founded in 2005, invests exclusively in companies and assets that ensure water quality and supply. WAM’s investment team comprises two distinct groups focused on global listed water public equities and water resources and regenerative farmland in the US Southwest respectively. WAM is one of the first water industry focused investors and is widely recognized as a water industry thought leader.
IFG Principals assisted Private Equity Sponsor Woerner Holdings by providing senior bank debt that financed the expansion of an existing cold storage facility at Canon Potato corporate headquarters in Center, Colorado. The expansion helped facilitate an expanding supply agreement with a national brand name Produce company, allowing the Company to further diversify product offerings and enhance future profitability.
IFG Principals previously provided acquisition financing that allowed Private Equity Sponsor Woerner Holdings to initially acquire the Company in 2016. Canon Potato, LLC packages and distributes quality potatoes out of the San Luis Valley in Center, Colorado and through Schmieding Produce, another Woerner-owned company, supplies fresh produce to retailers and food companies across the nation.
IFG assisted as financial consultant to Glacier Hops Ranch (“GHR”) to help the company refine its strategic plan to explore financing alternatives.
Founded in 2014, GHR is based in Whitefish, Montana and provides innovative hops-based ingredients to customers worldwide, including a hops-based essential oil extract – known as Hopzoil™ – with numerous applications in the beer , nonalcoholic beverage, nutraceuticals and biocosmetic markets. Steam distilled from fresh hops and produced with no additives, Hopzoil™ is a differentiated and potentially disruptive product ingredient for beer, beverage and wellness products offering a range of economic, product-flavoring and potential health benefits.
IFG assisted as financial advisor to Columbia Pulp in connection with a large financing to construct a new specialty pulp mill in Eastern Washington that uses waste wheat straw as its feed stock to produce environmentally-friendly pulp and lignin co-products. Columbia Pulp’s manufacturing process uses less chemicals, energy and water than existing pulp processes and is conducted at atmospheric conditions, resulting in higher yields, excellent product quality and a much lower environmental footprint. The project was financed through a combination of private equity and a tax-exempt bond placement.
IFG assisted the prior owners of South Reach Networks in a change of control transaction to support the growth plan of a new CEO and a liquidity event for existing shareholders. A mid-market private equity firm was introduced who provided both growth capital and shareholder liquidity. South Reach Networks (formerly Interconnect Miami or iM) is an established Florida based telecommunications infrastructure provider which owns and operates a Metro & Long-Haul Fiber Optic Network and a Carrier Class Data Center located in Downtown Miami. South Reach Networks is the fiber gateway backbone for the east coast of Florida.
IFG Principals were Founding Investors in Groom Energy Solutions (now Dalkia Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of EDF Group). Dalkia Energy Solutions is headquartered in the Boston area and is focused on providing a full range of energy efficiency solutions to large enterprises. Groom Energy Solutions was sold to a North American subsidiary of large European energy company EDF Group in late 2016, at which point it had established a nationwide footprint. The Company was re-named Dalkia Energy Solutions in 2019.
