Operating leaders for the portfolio, as soon as the plan needs them.
A value-creation plan is only as good as the people delivering it. A gap in the management team costs more than the fee to fill it.
Where South African portfolio plans slip
South African deals meet the same problems after completion:
Finance too thin for a fund
Owner-run companies seldom produce monthly reporting that a fund and its lenders will accept.
The vendor leaves, the relationships go with them
A founder exit takes the customer contacts and the know-how, and the plan assumed both would stay.
Ownership structures add complexity
B-BBEE partners, management shareholders and foreign limited partners all expect clear reporting and fair process.
The pan-African add-on needs an owner
Buy-and-build across borders only works if somebody senior owns the integration and the cash.
A fractional or interim executive from our collective can start within weeks. Their brief is the value-creation plan; they report to the board and, when the time comes, hand the seat to a permanent appointment.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Deploying a senior operator inside a portfolio company
- Executing a 100-day plan the moment the deal closes
- Value creation through the hold, not another advisory report
- Building reporting, systems and management credibility before an exit
- Operational diligence and leadership-gap assessment before you buy
Not for
- A strategy deck or set of recommendations to hand back
- A business that wants an adviser, not an operator inside it
- Pure diligence with no operator deployed afterwards
- A mandate for oversight rather than hands-on execution
What a sponsor gets
Interim and fractional operators are a familiar tool in South African private equity. Ours come from a vetted collective, with our governance kept around them until the seat is handed on.
A reporting rhythm agreed early
We agree the review cadence with the board and the fund at the start, and flag drift against the value-creation plan.
Experience behind the operator
Cross-border add-ons or B-BBEE partners: the operator can call on others in the collective who have worked with both.
A handover we manage
Should an operator leave mid-hold, our notes on the asset shape the next search and we handle the changeover with the board.
Matched to founder and fund
Vendors who stay need to trust the newcomer, and the fund needs numbers it can use. We match for both.
Across the PE investment lifecycle
From pre-deal to exit preparation.
Pre-deal: operational due diligence
Embed a Fractional COO or CFO to support your ODD. They identify gaps your model hasn't priced.
Post-acquisition: fill the leadership gaps
Start the search within days of instruction and have the right operator embedded within weeks. No recruitment pipeline, notice periods, or trial risk.
Value creation: operational improvement
Build financial infrastructure, operating cadences, commercial engines, and professional people structures.
Exit preparation: build credibility
A Fractional CFO producing clean board reporting and investor-grade financials is a meaningful credibility signal in any sale process.
The value-creation matrix
Each value-creation lever maps to the operator built to own it. Most plans pull two or three at once.
Portfolio company leadership options
Match the right fractional operator to the specific portfolio company need.
Our operating partners have worked at
