American Securities CEO: Companies can thrive and prosper in the U.S. and expand internationally

With us now post 9 American Security CEO Michael Fish, welcome. It's good to have you. Thanks, Sarah. Thanks, Carl. Nice to be here. So, so this has been a theme that some of the deal makers have complained about and that is with these higher interest rates, we haven't seen private equity exits. How much is it affecting your, your decision making on that front right now? What we've seen with the with the Fed and rates well on the exit, on the exit front, it's different for every firm. For our for our companies, we've been able to grow EBITDA and when you grow EBITDA, there's always good outcomes for investors. And so we've been fortunate to be able to send back a $5 billion of capital to investors in the last 12 months. And that for us is a lot of a lot of money more to come. Well, we're always trying is it is the rate environment a big factor? It's it higher interest rates have been a headwind for the last two years that creates a valuation gap between sellers who want the price that existed 3 years ago with lower interest rates and buyers who are worried about rates going higher is staying the same. So it's a headwind. But again, if you're growing EBITDA in your portfolio companies, growing profits, that's going to create good investor outcomes, maybe not as good as they might have been three years ago, but certainly good. I'm interested in some of the industry verticals. You're in AG equipment, you're in some water, right? And some solar. Would you describe them as target rich? Or do you have to be very, very selective? So we look Carl, for industries which have tailwinds and so AG equipment, solar are examples of water which have tailwinds. So we look real hard in those industries. We like to buy the number one market share player, US headquarter business with 50 to 200 million of EPA. And so those have targets. But finding that right market share leader that you can acquire an attractive price with a great management team is always a challenge, right. And and USXUS is roughly split in half. Well, our investor base is 50% US, 50% international, but our companies are all US headquartered. You know, we're based in New York and our portfolio is all US headquartered. What what sort of themes are interesting to you right now within the within the groups that you look at? So for 30 years now roughly 60% of our capital by deals and by dollars has gone into industrials, US industrial companies have, they've grown generally as a sector one or two percent faster than GDP. And one of the, you know, there are three big themes in the world, clean energy, decarbonization, near shoring, getting supply chain closer to where manufacturing is in the US and of course AI. And so in that middle theme, US industrials are poised to benefit from that going forward. Would you argue that we talked so much about mega cap tech and the advantage that maybe USAI leaders, for example, have a rally versus their competitors around the rest of the world? Would you say the same thing about US industrials? Are they as dominant or as Europe and or China? Are they fierce competitors? Well, it depends on the sector and there are, you know, different industries and different, different competitors, competitors in different places. the US is a great place to do business. It is a big market. It is a free market and companies can thrive and prosper here and expand internationally. China you always have to be aware of because it's a big market, it's low cost and we have an office in Shanghai, China, because we think you need to know what's going on in China if you're investing in US industrial businesses and Europe is it very much depends. It's tend to be smaller markets, different laws, different languages, different geography. And so you want to be aware of what's going on in Europe, but it's less a factor for US based manufacturing. You talked about exits. What about fundraising? What's that environment like right now? Well, if you read all the public stuff, it's it's a, it's a challenging fundraising environment for many. And what's your experience? Are you bucking that trend too? Oh, you know, those are those are things that you have to be careful what you talk about. I'll just take a pass on that one.