Montreal, Quebec 26 March 2010 – Kirchner Private Capital Group was recently featured in Le Journal des Affaires discussing the groups presence in Quebec and their 25 years in business.

Pour lire cet article en français:http://www.lesaffaires.com/archives/generale/-les-entrepreneurs-doivent-foncer-/512251 .

Quebec small to medium-size businesses have emerged from the crisis with healthy balance sheets and streamlined cost structures. The time has come for them to put this advantage to use and acquire technologies or other businesses, according to Warren Blair Kirchner, President of Kirchner Private Capital Group, an investment firm that specializes in financing and transactions for small to medium-size businesses.

“Lenders, investors and potential acquirers have regained an appetite for small to medium-size businesses with tangible plans for growth that are already in the implementation stage”, says this deal maker originally from New York.

Small to medium-size businesses will not succeed in drawing the attention of potential acquirers or getting venture capital firms to loosen their purse strings by turning inwards. Proactive measures are required, says Mr. Kirchner. “They’re not interested in waiting three years for a small to medium-size business to revive its R & D activities or hire sellers to bring its revenues up to speed”.

Over the past month, for instance, water treatment specialists GLV (TSX, GLV.A, $9.06) and Stella-Jones, a producer of railway ties and timbers (TSX, SJ, $26.95), both completed private placements with institutional investors for $40 million and $80 million, respectively, in order to finance recent acquisitions.

“This stock market dynamic can work on the closely-held corporations market,” asserts the 62 year old financier. He predicts a new wave of mergers and acquisitions in the wake of the paralysis brought on by the financial crisis.

Large corporations have liquid assets at hand and are actively looking for a competitive edge, whether it be the latest technology or a business doing well in its niche.

A third of its workforce soon in Montreal

The Kirchner Group, with its head office in Alabama, is celebrating 25 years in Canada. The firm wants to take advantage of the potential windfall of transactions in Quebec.

The firm’s office, located in downtown Montreal, will be home to between 6 and 10 professionals before the year is out. This is a third of Kirchner’s total workforce, made up of 28 professionals. In fact, Jean-Sébastien Lamoureux, formerly an executive at Investissement Québec, joined Kirchner a few days ago as a managing director.

“In a way, we are a virtual business. Our professionals go where business takes us,” says Mr. Kirchner, who spends one or two weeks in Montreal every month.

By Dominique Beauchamp
dominique.beauchamp@transcontinental.ca