Andrew Nikou
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Andrew Nikou is a Canadian businessman who is the founder and CEO of OpenGate Capital, a global private
buyout In finance, a buyout is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity, or a controlling interest of a company, or a majority share of the capital stock of the company is acquired. The acquirer thereby "buys out" the present equity holde ...
firm. The firm is focused on acquiring lower to middle market businesses that are often privately owned, or non-core divisions of larger companies located around the world. To date, the firm has completed more than 75 transactions, including acquisitions and divestitures, and has acquired more than $8 billion in gross consolidated revenues. The firm first gained recognition for the acquisition of TV Guide Magazine in December 2008, and the publication's turn to profitability in the first quarter of 2010. Nikou is actively involved with the management of each of the companies held in the portfolio. Nikou has received recognition for his business achievements. In 2012, Nikou was a recipient of The M&A Advisor's "Top 40 Under 40" award for the West Region. In 2010, Nikou was named a Top Dealmaker of 2010 by ''Mergers & Acquisitions'' magazine."Top Dealmaker Andrew Nikou: The founder of Opengate Capital is making a name for himself on reclamation projects," Danielle Fugazy, Mergers & Acquisitions, 12-7-2010, http://www.themiddlemarket.com/maj/2010_25/andrew-nikou-213884-1.html, 10-17-2011 However, his actions have also drawn substantial criticism, including numerous lawsuits.


Early years

Nikou was born in 1977 in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, Canada. His parents left their native
Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...
before the
Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...
and relocated to Canada, later moving with Nikou to California when he was four years old. His father, who majored in mathematics at a German university, worked at the
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal Public utility, utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021–2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of wat ...
. Nikou grew up with a passion for trading baseball cards and competing in
breakdancing Breakdancing or breaking, also called b-boying (when performed by men) or b-girling (women), is a style of street dance originated by African Americans and Nuyorican, Puerto Ricans in The Bronx borough of New York City. Breakdancing consist ...
competitions. He was bullied in school for being short. Nikou graduated from
William Howard Taft Charter High School William Howard Taft Charter High School is a Public school (government funded), public school located on the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue in the Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, Woodland Hills district of the San Ferna ...
in
Woodland Hills, California Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, United States. History The area was inhabited for around 8,000 years by Native Americans in the United States, ...
, where he was active in the Persian community. Nikou studied finance at the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
Marshall School of Business The USC Marshall School of Business is the business school of the University of Southern California. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. In 1997 the school was renamed following a $35 million donation fr ...
. After graduating, he worked for the Patent and License Exchange, a start-up financed by Softbank Capital.


Career


Platinum Equity

In 2001, Nikou began his career in private equity at
Platinum Equity Platinum Equity, LLC is an American private equity investment firm founded by Tom Gores in 1995, headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. The firm focuses on leveraged buyout investments of established companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia. ...
. At age 25, he moved to Paris to help open the firm's first European office. At Platinum Equity, he expanded the firm's international presence in Europe. In 2004, he left Platinum Equity and moved back to Los Angeles to start his own global investment firm.


OpenGate Capital

In 2005, Nikou founded OpenGate Capital with $30,000 from his own savings. OpenGate Capital is a global private equity firm that acquires mid-market companies in the following industries: industrials, technology, consumer and business services. By 2016, OpenGate had raised its first institutional fund and had made more than 40 acquisitions to turn around lower and middle-market businesses. OpenGate Now has $1.5 billion in assets under management, specializing in the industrials and chemicals industries.


Fortune 500 division acquisitions

Under Nikou's leadership, OpenGate Capital bought founder-owned businesses and divisions of Fortune 500 companies such as
Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...
,
Schlumberger Schlumberger (), doing business as SLB, is a global multinational oilfield services company. Founded in France in 1926, the company is now incorporated as Schlumberger NV in Willemstad, Curaçao, with principal executive offices in Houston ...
, Arvin Meritor,
Stora Enso Stora Enso Oyj (from and ) is a Finnish and Swedish forest industry company. It develops and produces various materials, mostly based on wood, for a range of industries and applications worldwide. It has headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, an ...
and Cascades. In 2006, OpenGate purchased OMMIC, a former division of Philips. OpenGate sold OMMIC to Egalux SA Luxembourg in 2008. In 2019, OpenGate purchased the lock company Sargent & Greenleaf from
Stanley Black & Decker Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a ''Fortune'' 500 American manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware, and a provider of security products. Headquartered in the Greater Hartford city of Ne ...
.


Media acquisitions

In 2008, Nikou negotiated the deal for OpenGate Capital to acquire
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
for $1 and $50 million in assumed liabilities from owner
Rovi Corporation TiVo Corporation, formerly known as the Rovi Corporation and Macrovision Solutions Corporation, was an American technology company headquartered in San Jose, California. Now operating as Xperi, the company is primarily involved in licensing ...
(previously Macrovision). TV Guide was profitable again within 2 years, and OpenGate sold it in 2015 for three times the cash it put into the business. Later in 2008, Nikou led OpenGate Capital's bid for
McGraw-Hill Companies S&P Global Inc. (prior to 2016, McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013, The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are financia ...
''
BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...
'' magazine, then withdrew from the bidding. Also in 2009, OpenGate purchased children's publishers Fleurus Presse and Junior Hebdo from Groupe Le Monde. In 2010, Nikou was behind the OpenGate bid for ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'', owned by the Washington Post Company, but the firm did not acquire the publication.


International acquisitions

Nikou increased OpenGate's pace of international acquisitions in the 2010s. In 2019, OpenGate acquired the German content-management platform CoreMedia. Also in 2019, OpenGate purchased the UK-based Duraco Specialty Tapes, which then acquired Infinity Tapes the following year. In 2018, OpenGate acquired the Italian stove and fireplace manufacturer Jotul from the European private equity group Ratos. In 2012, through the firm's legacy, pre-fund investment process, OpenGate Capital acquired the Latin American operations of Getronics from the Dutch conglomerate, KPN. In 2011, the firm acquired NorPaper Avot Vallée, a specialty paper manufacturer based in France. And in 2010, OpenGate acquired Brazilian-based Philips Business Communications, since renamed Sopho which merged into Getronics LATAM, and Finland-based KotkaMills, a laminating paper and wood business. In April 2024, OpenGate sold the French waterproofing and building insulation firm SMAC to Compagnie Financière Jousset, making 10 times its $17 million investment. The company was acquired and formed in a carve-out from Colas Group in 2019.


OpenGate Capital Partners I and II

In July 2016, OpenGate closed its first institutional fund, OpenGate Capital Partners I, at $305 million, exceeding its target of $300 million and raising about twice what the average new private equity fund does, according to Preqin. As of August 2018, OpenGate's first fund had completed nine platform investments, five of which had closed in 2016. In November 2016, OpenGate Capital completed the acquisition of the zinc products business of the Belgian company Umicore for $150 million in debt and equity. The deal was the fifth platform investment from OpenGate's debut fund. OpenGate rebranded the business EverZinc; within Umicore, it generated $425 million in revenue in 2015. In January 2019, EverZinc purchased G.H. Chemicals and Microzinc, collectively known as GHC. This was OpenGate's second add-on acquisition. Several pre-fund, legacy investments that were made with the personal capital of Andrew Nikou and the Partners at OpenGate Capital were sold: Benvic was sold to InvestIndustrial in December 2017, NorPaper Avot-Vallee was sold in 2018 to a private investor, and in January 2019, NAKAN (the largest division within Ivy Group) was sold to Westlake Chemical Corporation. In October 2019, OpenGate Capital closed on the firm's second institutional fund, OpenGate Capital Partners II, oversubscribed on its original $450 million target, with approximately $585 million in commitments. In that same year, the firm also completed six platform investments, and one add-on, all within the second fund. Power Partners Inc., the first investment completed in OpenGate's first fund, was realized in November 2019 through the sale to Pioneer Transformers, a portfolio company of Mill Point Partners.


Other acquisitions

OpenGate's other acquisitions include manufacturing companies Chemisphere, a St. Louis, Missouri-based specialty solvent blender and chemical distributor, and Extrusiones de Toledo (Extol), one of the leaders in the aluminum extrusion sector in Spain and France. Prior to raising its first institutional fund, OpenGate also acquired the
Waukesha, Wisconsin Waukesha ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 71,158 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River adjacent to th ...
plant and brand rights to Golden Guernsey Dairy as the result of an antitrust divestment of
Dean Foods Dean Foods was an American food and beverage company and the largest dairy company in the United States. The company's products included milk, ice cream, dairy products, cheese, juice, and teas. It processed milk in the United States under a numb ...
, which was required to sell the plant to purchase GGD's other plants in the state. On January 5, 2013, Golden Guernsey ceased operations in an alleged violation of the State of Wisconsin's mass layoff/shutdown regulations. The Golden Guernsey plant employed over 100 workers. Past closures also included PennySaver USA and Hamilton Scientific. Lawsuits have been filed under the WARN Act when firing hundreds of employees from PennySaver and Hamilton Scientific.


Film

Andrew was the Executive Producer of an Academy Award nominated short documentary "The Barber of Little Rock."


Philanthropy

Nikou sits on the Board of YELLOW, the non-profit organization founded by
Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973), also known mononymously as Pharrell, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and fashion designer. He first became known as one half of the music production duo ...
. In 2014, Nikou announced that he was forming a partnership with businessman Ricardo Salinas to bring Esperanza Azteca Youth Orchestra to Los Angeles through a partnership with the city's mayor,
Eric Garcetti Eric Michael Garcetti (born February 4, 1971) is an American politician and diplomat who served as the List of ambassadors of the United States to India, United States ambassador to India from 2023 to 2025. He was the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles f ...
. On October 7, 2014, an official ceremony was held to celebrate the inauguration of the firs
Esperanza Azteca America
program at the Florence Nightingale Middle School in Los Angeles. In 2016, Andrew Nikou started the Andrew Nikou Foundation, an organization that focuses on education. That same year, Nikou sponsored an anti-bullying initiative between The Andrew Nikou Foundation and XPRIZE, of which he sits on the Innovation Board. In 2021, the Andrew Nikou Foundation, together with USC and other partners, started Education (Re)Open, designed to address faults in the education system exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.


Personal life

Nikou is married with children and resides in
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nikou, Andrew 1977 births Living people Businesspeople from Vancouver Canadian emigrants to the United States American chief executives William Howard Taft Charter High School alumni Marshall School of Business alumni