About Us
Kelly Capital’s investment philosophy is all about creating value. Creating value begins with creating confidence. We've earned a trusted reputation in fields as diverse as healthcare, real estate, hospitality, retail, logistics, financial and technology.
Value creation is the product of two disciplines: the correct identification of complex and misunderstood situations and the execution of a clear strategy to unlock the hidden value. Through our expertise in acquisitions, business development, and capital structure optimization, we're able to unlock that hidden value, often in companies that are subject to regulatory or structural change, cyclical challenges or financial complexity.
Our History
Kelly Capital was founded nearly two decades ago as a company, but long before that as a personal vision. Entrepreneurship and shrewd investing has always been Michael Kelly's nature. In his early 20s, in the midst of the Savings & Loan Crisis, Michael resourcefully negotiated a $150 million acquisition from the Resolution Trust Corporation – the largest of its kind at the time. Since then, his initiatives across diverse industries and business climates have resulted in the completion billions in transactions.
Using an innovative approach that combines disciplined analysis with bold strategies and rapid execution, Michael has earned an excellent reputation for identifying value where others cannot, and for delivering superior returns with limited risk. Under his leadership, Kelly Capital has transformed declining businesses into thriving companies, developed numerous real estate properties, and become one of Southern California's leading privately-held investment firms.
At its inception, Kelly Capital focused on the acquisition of whole loans and whole loan portfolios secured by commercial real estate. Since then, Kelly Capital has expanded its focus to include operating companies and has taken two public companies private. The firm’s aggressive management and marketing techniques have provided a number of successful acquisition and turn-around stories.
Today, we operate in the following key areas. See our investment criteria pages for additional detail.
Company Acquisitions & Investments
Our Company Acquisitions & Investments Group acquires and invests in diverse operating companies and assets. We focus on complicated transactions that enable us to leverage our ability to complete due diligence quickly and fund change of control transactions as principals with our own balance sheet. We have taken two public companies private and are interested in acquisitions of both public and private companies. Click here for more information.
Real Estate Acquisitions & Investments Group
Our Real Estate Group actively seeks distressed investment opportunities in real estate properties and projects throughout the U.S. We target unique, niche opportunities in both [new construction and re-development] and focus on deals in evolving urban submarkets that we are able to underwrite and commit to quickly. Click here for more information.
Debt Acquisitions & Investments Group
Our Debt Group serves active participants in the secondary market who have demanding portfolio management goals. We work actively with principals and brokers looking to buy and sell whole loans or whole loan portfolios secured by commercial real estate and corporate debt. Click here for more information.
Operations Group
Our Operations Group is an in-house team that assists in managing and integrating new acquisitions and servicing loan portfolios. We actively support our investments by providing not only our capital, but also, high-quality operational resources. Resources we provide in-house include:
- Finance
- Accounting
- Marketing
- Legal
- Risk Management
- Human Resources
- Information Technology
Kelly Capital is uniquely qualified to be act as a Risk Transfer Partner for complex situations involving environmental issues, litigation and insurance claims. Our large, in-house legal and operations team provides the resources to cost-effectively manage complex issues that many investors wish to avoid. We are experienced and comfortable dealing with significant environmental and litigation liabilities including:
- Asbestos
- Environmentally-impacted properties
- Companies in litigation, foreclosure or bankruptcy
- Assets under lender liability claims
Two Scenarios:
- Kelly Capital as a Principal Investor – We acquire companies with long tail liabilities that others wish to avoid.
- Kelly Capital as a Strategic Partner – We partner with strategic buyers that want assets of a target but fear the liabilities. We take the entity and liabilities and transfer assets to the strategic buyer.
Case Study Example:
Kelly Capital acquired a publicly traded company with significant environmental problems including contaminated buildings and land and asbestos litigation. We separated the operating entities from these distressed assets, sold the operating entities to strategic buyers, then continued to work-out issues at the property level through environmental remediation and vigorous litigation defense.
Kelly Capital will provide financing for intellectual property infringement litigation in exchange for participation in awards and settlements.
In addition to all of the areas described above, Kelly Capital seeks to make opportunistic investments in complex or misunderstood situations that do not fall under a clearly defined category. We take pride in completing complicated transactions that others have said were too difficult or resource intensive.