Asked how his company has quickly earned a reputation as a leader in bringing capital and other vital services to small and medium-sized enterprises, Keith Turner doesn't hesitate.
"We put the right people together with the right money at the right time," says Turner, President and CEO of Meridian Merchant Capital Canada Ltd. "We call that the Meridian Effect."
Meridian is a European style merchant banking firm that provides or arranges financing to help a company climb the next rung - or a few rungs - on its ladder to success. Based in Calgary, with offices in Vancouver and Kelowna, Meridian is expanding to Edmonton and plans to enter regional U.S. markets in the near future.
Since launching three years ago, Meridian has assisted Western Canadian firms operating in a variety of sectors, including oil and gas, real estate, construction, car rentals and audio-visual. Meridian works primarily with private companies whose annual revenue ranges from $5 million to $100 million - but places no restrictions on the sectors in which it will work.
"We don't just raise money," says Turner. "We advise - and help a client grow. We help them acquire companies. We help them access capital for growth and we sometimes supply that capital ourselves through our related fund Trinity Capital."
Such service sounds heavenly, but Turner, who has more than 30 years of merchant-banking experience, is not an angel investor.
"An investor invests money, an investment broker arranges capital, and a consultant advises. We do all those things and more. We'll also write your business plan for you if you need us to and conduct strategic planning sessions to make sure the company is on track. Raising money for a business is relatively easy, but just having the money doesn't guarantee success. In several of our situations, we put in our own chief financial officer and our own monitoring people."
The Meridian Effect capitalizes on a model first used centuries ago in Europe, where companies that couldn't get money from banks turned to fellow merchants.
"The merchants would often lend money that the banks wouldn't lend," says Turner. "That's why those bankers became known as merchant bankers. They actually were merchants directly involved in the trade."
The same goes for Turner and Meridian's other principals. All are experienced business leaders based in Vancouver and Calgary. "Every one of us in the company has got blood on their T-shirt," says Turner, who owned a media company and has been twice been nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year in Western Canada by Ernst and Young.
"Every one of us has either owned our own businesses, so we know the other perspective - from the perspective of clients - or, we've worked in financial institutions for long periods of time, so we actually know how the banking system works. Or we've worked in investment firms, so we know how the investment system works.
So we are not purely brokers of capital."
Turner began his merchant-banking career at age 17 and worked for British and U.S. banks for 22 years, 11 of them in New York and five in London, England, with a specialty in structuring creative deals. Prior to founding Meridian, he served as senior vice-president of a Vancouver-based investment banking firm. He launched Meridian three years ago after discovering there was no company in Western Canada that could meet all of a growing firm's capital needs.
"What I'm doing today in Western Canada, I was doing 25 years ago in New York City," says Turner. "Merchant banking is only coming to Western Canada now."
Benefits of working with Meridian? Access to capital, intellectual resources and people. Meridian provides service from Day One to deal-closing day. If necessary, Meridian will stay on for up to one year after the deal.
"We'll help that company through its transition by, once the deal is closed, not leaving them alone," says Turner. "Very often, when companies go and change substantially in scale, they don't know how to handle it. What a typical adviser does is, they close the deal - and then they walk. We stick around."
Recently, Meridian raised $8.5 million to help Calgary-based Advantage Exteriors take over a competitor. Although the financing deal is done, Meridian is helping Advantage plan for the long run by continuing to work with the siding and roofing contractor over the next 12 months.
"Not only did Meridian raise the capital for Advantage owner Brian Gibbons to make the acquisition, but we advised him throughout the process," says Turner. "Now, that the transaction is closed, we're going to be around him for the next 12 months to help him through the transition - and help him identify other acquisitions as well."
Advantage retains access to Turner and other Meridian principals who have more than 300 years combined experience in the finance, legal, banking, consulting, regulatory and accounting sectors.
"We always leave a company better and, if appropriate, bigger than when we met them," says Turner.
If your company is interested in help getting better and/ or bigger, contact Meridian now at 403.538.2130, info@meridiancanada.com or www.meridiancanada.com.
