Palladium Equity Partners has added another professional to Palladium Heritage, a newly formed unit that invests in lower middle market, with the hiring of Lamar Horne as a managing director. Mr. Horne will be active at Palladium Heritage focusing on deal execution and portfolio monitoring.
In February, Palladium Heritage began staffing its new strategy, investing in business-to-business and industrial companies with EBITDA below $12 million, with the hiring of Katherine Lehman as a partner and Edwin Moss as a managing director. Both Ms. Lehman and Mr. Moss worked together for many years at both Hilltop Private Capital (Ms. Lehman was a co-founder of Hilltop) and at Lincolnshire Management where they were both were managing directors. Also joining the Palladium Heritage team in February, as a principal, was David MacDonald. Earlier, Mr. MacDonald was principal at Lincolnshire Management where he worked for over eight years, including working directly with Ms. Lehman and Mr. Moss.
Mr. Horne joins Palladium Heritage after 13 years at PNC Mezzanine Capital where he was active investing both mezzanine debt and equity in lower middle-market companies. Mr. Horne has his undergraduate degree in business administration from Morehouse College and his MBA from Carnegie Mellon.
Ms. Lehman and Mr. Horne both served on the board of directors of American Track, a provider of railroad infrastructure services, from 2016 to 2021. American Track was formed in 2016 through a consolidation of two family businesses – Texas-based American Track Generations and Florida-based C.J. Bridges Railroad Contractor – in partnership with Hilltop Private Capital, Deerpath Capital and PNC Mezzanine. American Track was sold to DFW Capital Partners in November 2021.
“We are thrilled that Lamar Horne has joined Palladium Heritage,” said Ms. Lehman. “He brings to Palladium years of exceptional expertise and experience in precisely the segment of the lower end of the middle market that we are targeting. He will be a strong addition to Palladium Heritage’s talented investment team.”
Separate from its new lower-middle market strategy, Palladium Equity Partners, with more than $3 billion of assets under management, continues to invest from $50 million to $150 million of equity in companies that have $10 million to $75 million of EBITDA. Sectors of interest include consumer, services, industrials and healthcare, and Palladium specializes in investing in companies that operate in the US Hispanic market. Since its founding in 1997, New York City-based Palladium has made 38 platform investments, 148 add-on acquisitions, and 22 platform exits.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | April 7, 2022
