Insight
Heller: Niche strategies covered in books or blogs are likely too crowded
“I think the moment there's a book or a blog about something we're doing, it's likely not for us.”
Disclosure
Heller: Cordillera exited music royalties to invest in live music and other media
“While we've moved on from music publishing and music royalties, there are other things in the live music space and other media royalties that we invest in and we learn from our previous deals.”
Disclosure
Heller: Cordillera's deal flow is split 50/50 between inbound and thematic sourcing
“About half of our deal flow comes across our desk and about half of our deal flow is thematic.”
Disclosure
Cordillera focuses on self-liquidating investments to avoid sponsor exit risks
“So a lot of things that we do are self liquidating. Most of what we do, we don't have to sell to other private equity firms or take public, but there are some things that we do.”
Disclosure
Cordillera finances specialty inventory including whiskey, wireless spectrum, and data center land
“And so we have the theme around specialty inventory financing. And the way that that manifests itself is in very different things like whiskey and wireless spectrum licenses and land for data centers, but underlying it might be some actual same thing, liquidit…”
Disclosure
Heller: Cordillera took 18 months to underwrite its initial whiskey investment
“Whiskey as something that when that came across our desk six years ago, we knew nothing about investing in whiskey. Literally nothing. Three different groups pinged us and said, hey, you got to look at what's happening in the aging curve. I didn't even know wh…”
Disclosure
Cordillera takes equity, warrants, or revenue share in partner operating businesses
“We didn't used to take warrants or equity or a revenue share in their business. We do today, because oftentimes when we put an operating team in business, they could generate a track record, and then they could go out and raise more capital, and we want our en…”
Disclosure
Cordillera buys and ages whiskey barrels for craft brand inventory financing
“We buy and age barrels of whiskey, and we sell them back to craft brands immediately when they want to put it into a bottle and sell it. They don't want to use their balance sheet to warehouse whiskey.”
Disclosure
Cordillera acquires FCC wireless spectrum licenses to resell to carriers
“Wireless spectrum licenses. We buy out of FCC auctions and own Wireless spectrum licenses and sell it back to carriers when they need it for their networks.”
Assertion Partly supported
Kings League World Cup generated 215 million views, 80% under age 34
“The finals, what they call their World Cup, two hundred and fifteen million views of the content, and 80% of the viewership is under 34 years old.”
Disclosure
Cordillera is evaluating an inventory financing deal in aging cheese
“We're looking at a deal right now in cheese. We like to look at things that need aging. This fits into that inventory finance theme.”
Disclosure
Only one of Cordillera's initial 300 target LPs invested at launch
“Of that list, I think it was close to 300, one of those people actually invested in our business.”
Disclosure
Heller: Most Cordillera deal underwritings take six to 12 months
“We are not in a bake off or a competitive process where we have to have a deposit down and an LOI down within two weeks. Otherwise we're going to lose a deal. Most of our underwriting takes six to 12 months.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Heller: Whiskey aging price curve is deepest in a long time
“That aging curve today is as deep as has been seen in the industry in a long time.”
Disclosure
Cordillera evaluates investments in aging cheese alongside spectrum and precious metals
“We also have expressions of this in wireless spectrum licenses that we invest in. There's some precious metal strategies that we invest in. And so, and then we're looking at a deal right now in cheese and aging cheese.”
Disclosure
Heller: Cordillera insures whiskey inventory based on projected one-year-ahead aging value
“For whiskey, we insure a year ahead from the aging curve, so whatever the value is today, we actually insure it for a higher value for what we predict the value of the whiskey will be a year ahead. So if we get wiped out for some reason, the collection for the…”
Assertion Supported
Heller: Private equity is $9T and hedge funds are $3T-$4T
“If you think about private equity, it's a nine trillion dollar industry, hedge funds, three to four trillion dollar industry.”
Disclosure
Heller: Cordillera Has Never Closed a Deal in Income Share Agreements
“Income share agreements is a theme of ours that we can talk through, and we have found some interesting deals. We've never done a deal in that space, but we watch it”
Disclosure
Heller: Cordillera backs a boat marina roll-up company
“We also have a boat marina roll-up company that, you know, boat marinas can be subject to hurricane and weather risk, but those are solvable through insurance.”
