Person to Watch
Rob Healy
Healy is co-founder and managing director of private equity firm L Squared Capital, which opened its Newport Beach office about two years ago.
He hired a team of eight last year to help invest $550 million raised from ultra-high-net-worth families.
The firm has since closed two deals: $40 million in educational website manager Edlio Inc. in Los Angeles and an undisclosed amount in Learners Edge Inc. in Lakeville, Minn., a provider of online continuing education programs for teachers.
It also has recapitalized SaaS company FineLine Technologies in Norcross, Ga., which provides bar code labelling services to retailers.
L Squared makes long-term investments of between $20 million to $100 million in companies earning $3 million to $25 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
We’ll keep watching as Healy and L Squared grow portfolio companies, which include industrial technology firms like Virtium, a computer memory products maker in Rancho Santa Margarita.
Company to Watch
Core Commercial Bank
The clock ran out on Core Commercial before it ever opened its doors in Newport Beach. It wasn’t able to raise the $25 million required to capitalize the bank by the Nov. 18 deadline.
It raised $7 million from the bank’s organizers in February, but few OC-based investors chose to support a new bank in a low interest rate economy that meant low profits for lenders.
The bank’s proposed 10,000-square-foot headquarters at 4490 Von Karman Ave. in Newport Beach is on the market for lease. It had tentatively been leased through 2025 pending the capitalization outcome, according to CoStar’s real estate database.
The bank’s two prominent organizers, Chief Banking Officer Darrell Daniel and Chief Credit Officer Jonathan Sigal, consulted with Irvine-based advisory firm Carpenter & Co. to launch the company.
The bank lacked a compelling story to convince investors to open a new bank in OC’s economy, an unnamed source said.
Core Commercial was one of two U.S. banks to receive government approval last year. About 125 banks opened per year prior to 2007, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
— Michael de los Reyes
