Family-owned private-equity player buys into customized portfolio manager. Boutique investment-banking and venture-capital firm Carl Marks has purchased a minority interest in New York-based asset manager Capital Counsel. As a result, Carl Marks' president Mark Claster and principal Andy Boas will become members of Capital Counsel's investment committee.

Details of the transaction weren't disclosed.

"We knew immediately we wanted to forge a relationship with Capital Counsel," says Claster. "Our experience, skills and interests come from different perspectives, yet they also are so well aligned."

Long term

Capital Counsel, which invests in promising companies with low stock valuations, has been managing concentrated portfolios for individuals, families and institutions since 1999. The firm has assets under management of more than $1 billion.

"We believe having Carl Marks as an owner in the firm ensures that Capital Counsel can maintain its independence and continue to grow by always placing our clients' interests first and foremost," says Capital Counsel's president and co-founder Randall Smith. "Carl Marks knows the investment business and has proven its acumen by prospering since its inception three generations ago."

Smith adds that Carl Marks is "a long-term investor [that] has profited mightily by taking positions in businesses it understands."

New York-based Carl Marks, a family-owned investment firm, focuses on corporate revitalization, investment banking and principal investing. -FWR

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