Public Markets
After two reporting periods with losses, the FOCUS Communications Service Provider Index (CSPI) moved back into positive territory in our winter reporting period with a three-month gain of 5.2%. While a solid gain, this still underperformed both the 11.2% gain in the S&P 500 and the 13.6% gain in the NASDAQ by a fairly wide margin. The CSPI is also in positive territory for the full year period with a gain of 4.5%. Once again, this performance lagged both the S&P 500 (up 24.2%) and the NASDAQ (up 43.4%). Sector multiples are trading higher compared to this same time last year. The sector revenue multiple increased from 2.2x to 2.4x, and the sector EBITDA multiple went from 6.0x to 6.5x.
Rich Pierce, FOCUS Managing Director, has more than 20 years of investment banking experience advising middle market clients on a variety of mergers and acquisitions and capital raising transactions. During that time, Mr. Pierce’s primary emphasis has been on serving clients in the telecommunications industry including providers of network related hardware and software products, wireless and wireline telecommunications service providers and network engineering and construction companies.
Prior to joining FOCUS, Mr. Pierce was a Director in the Communications and Media group of Stifel Nicolaus, a nationally recognized middle market investment bank. In this capacity he led Stifel Nicolaus’ entry into the networking technology space while also working with clients in a variety of other telecommunications-related areas. Mr. Pierce was also a member of the Telecommunications group at Legg Mason. While at Legg Mason he gained significant experience working with telecommunications service providers, particularly those serving secondary and rural markets. Mr. Pierce has been a speaker for a variety of industry associations including the Rural Cellular Association (RCA), the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) and the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Council, and he has also been recognized as a testifying expert in the wireless industry. Before becoming an investment banker, Mr. Pierce had a successful seven year career as an officer in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps. In addition to working in a number of tactical level assignments in the U.S. and Europe, he is a graduate of the Army’s Airborne and RANGER training programs.
Mr. Pierce graduated from Brown University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and received his M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he graduated with distinction.
