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Andrew Nikou is a Canadian businessman who is the founder and CEO of OpenGate Capital, a global private buyout 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.
Nikou grew up with a passion for trading baseball cards and competing in breakdancing competitions. He was bullied in school for being short.
Nikou graduated from William Howard Taft Charter High School in Woodland Hills, California, where he was active in the Persian community. Nikou studied finance at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. After graduating, he worked for the Patent and License Exchange, a start-up financed by Softbank Capital.
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.
In 2019, OpenGate purchased the lock company Sargent & Greenleaf from Stanley Black & Decker.
Later in 2008, Nikou led OpenGate Capital's bid for McGraw-Hill Companies BusinessWeek magazine, then withdrew from the bidding. Also in 2009, OpenGate purchased children's publishers Fleurus Presse and Junior Hebdo from Groupe Le Monde."Nicole Farhi Buyer OpenGate Set to Announce Three More Deals,"
10-17-2011 In 2010, Nikou was behind the OpenGate bid for Newsweek, owned by the Washington Post Company, but the firm did not acquire the publication.
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.
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.
Prior to raising its first institutional fund, OpenGate also acquired the Waukesha, Wisconsin plant and brand rights to Golden Guernsey Dairy as the result of an antitrust divestment of Dean Foods, which was required to sell the plant to purchase GGD's other plants in the state."Investment firm to buy Dean Foods dairy plant," BusinessWeek, 8-15-2011, [1], 10-17-2011,
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.
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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.
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