Sample Projects – Maple Growth Partners

Sample Projects

We aim to publish periodic reports on the sectors we evaluate for our clients in order to present the nature of diverse assignments we receive and thereby showcase our research and analytical skill-sets and capabilities.

Indian Construction Equipment and Infra Finance Sector Overview

One of our Singapore-based impact investing fund client had asked us to conduct a detailed study within the Indian NBFC market to identify growth segments based on their investment criteria. They were looking for tech-oriented companies with an investment ticket size of less than $1 million. This full report is a 300 pager document providing a detailed overview of the Indian NBFC industry.

We first provided a broad overview of the Indian NBFC market and identified 12 service segments such as SME, education, healthcare, auto, housing, infra finance, construction equipment finance, loan against property (LAP), affordable housing, microfinance, gold, and wholesale finance. Of these identified segments, we carried out a detailed study on the following 9 segments our client was broadly interested into: SME, auto, healthcare, education, housing, affordable housing, construction equipment finance, infra finance, and LAP.

Then, we compared and evaluated all these segments based on a strict investment parameter framework to come up with a more fact-based (rather than intuitive) investment rationale and go-to-market strategies. We later presented our sector insights, value creation game plan, and actionable targets for each of the attractive segments, along with a directory of industry experts and influencers so that our client had the primary first-hand resource to assess the investment opportunities within the identified attractive service segments.

While the entire report is exclusive for the said client, we have provided our piecemeal analysis of the two least interested sectors (from the client perspective) i.e. infrastructure financing and construction equipment finance in order to showcase our research and analytical skill-sets and capabilities.

United States Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) Market

Our US-based middle-market focused private equity client assigned us to review the pharmacy benefits management sector.

Here, they were largely interested in the broad overview of the sector and addressable market size opportunity for various services segments. In addition to this, we presented overall generic and specialty drug spending trend in the US, along with a detailed discussion on the shift to transparency and PBM rebates.

We also provided a detailed section on how do PBMs make money, segmenting PBM gross profits into five distinct revenue sources. Further, there is an interesting piece of analysis of President Trump’s changing stance on prescription drugs before and after presidency campaign.

Later, we analyzed the competitive intensity within the sector and gathered that top 3 firms account for ~80% market share. In such a highly concentrated industry, we presented our insights on how small or mid-sized firms are sustaining their operations largely by offering specialized services.

We identified ~200 relevant competitors or bolt-on targets across the 21 PBM service segments and provided a detailed one-pager profile for each of them.

This overall 300 pager report is categorized by ~100 page industry overview and ~200 page of company profiles

While the full report is exclusively prepared for the said client, we have provided a gist of our overall analysis to showcase our research capabilities, especially for a niche market such as PBM.

United States Information Security Compliance Sector Overview

This project was commissioned by one of our $250mn+ private equity fund client. The primary objective of this report was to provide a market overview of the requested standards within the IT security compliance industry along with their adoption rates by relevant geographies, identification of the most attractive growth pockets globally to scale operations, and a detailed competitive landscape / bolt-on acquisition targets list.

Standards included were PCI; HIPAA; HITRUST; EI3PA; FedRamp; SOC 1 and SOC 2; GDPR; and NYDFS.

As a part of an exercise to identify the most attractive geography pockets for IT security compliance to scale operations globally, we provided a detailed cybersecurity preparedness research for each country to eventually come up with necessary insights to present the most suitable countries to invest in from a US PE portfolio company perspective.

We then screened hundreds of companies and identified 151 relevant competitors / bolt-on acquisition targets and have presented them in a matrix format outlaying their presence across standards along with ownership details in a standardized profile template.

From a PE perspective, we believe that this industry is perfectly positioned for a roll-up strategy. Broadening the scope of solutions offered to sell more to one client, coupled with scalability through cloud adoption and outsourcing the operations/support functions will likely enhance incremental value in the respective target.

While the full report is exclusively prepared for the said client, we have provided a gist of our overall analysis to showcase our research capabilities, especially for a niche market such as IT security compliance.

US Podiatry Market High-Level Overview

The primary purpose of this quick-turnaround project was to provide a high-level market overview of podiatry practices’ growth prospects and market dynamics in the US. Our client, a US-based healthcare private equity investment professional, was largely interested in understanding the prevailing market trends, growth drivers, and podiatry economics.

Major pointers we highlighted for podiatry industry investment consideration:

While podiatry overhead expenses has increased significantly, podiatrists are able to pass on the incremental cost to the patient/payer with a year in lag
Current supply of ~13,000 podiatrists are most likely meeting sufficient portion of the unmet demand and this supply-demand gap will likely diminish going forward
High student debt will likely inhibit incoming podiatrists to start their own practice and will likely compel them to join a group practice
Podiatry is a local/regional play as opposed to other limited practitioners such as dentists which is truly a national play

Following trends were presented that influenced the economics of a podiatry practice:

Gross income and net income for overall types of US podiatry practices have increased in recent years
Contrary to the market perception, gross income for solo practices in the US has shown signs of decent growth in recent years
On an overall basis (both solo and group practices) for net income, recently-formed group practices have been driving up the net income range for practices that are less than 10 years old
They are utilizing new tech to differentiate themselves and to improve the diagnosis and treatment quality
Podiatrists are looking to utilize assistance of nurse practitioners and physician assistants
Share of older practices (>30 years) and aging podiatrists (>61 years) has been increasing in recent years

We had also included podiatry transactions in the previous 10 years; one-pager profiles of major competitors; and regulations by states.

US Multi Level Marketing Industry Research

We recently evaluated the US multi level marketing industry for our client, a US-based private investment firm. In this report, we provided a typical performance cycle of an MLM company; identified suitable KPIs to analyze and compare competitor firms; and commented on general MLM market dynamics.

We identified that ‘pop and drop’ is the typical performance curve for a MLM firm. Pop and drop can be defined as a paradigm when sales massively increase in the initial years and then subsequently experience a sharp drop right after hitting the peak level. Typically, drop in sales of the existing markets are usually covered by the gains in sales of new markets. This is pretty much a non-ending cycle of entering and exiting new markets

Increasing number of people joined MLM industry during and post 2008-09 recession with the hope of additional/secondary income but sales dropped as it was difficult to sell (already inflated) products

Direct selling retail sales per person was the lowest in 2009, peak of recession
As the number of people involved in direct selling is increasing, direct sales per person has been on a declining trend

We also included top 55 companies in the US and compared them using a standard template by populating data fields such as key products/services, compensation structure, sales method, geographies, financials, member churn rate, business entry fee, % of sales commission, etc.

Indian Art Industry and its Correlation With China

We recently completed a detailed analysis of the Indian art/paintings industry providing a comprehensive view of the market, growth drivers, business models, and commented on its correlation with China, if any.

Usually, an art industry is covered by some specific pureplay art advisory or research analysis firms. However, we attempted to independently carry out this exercise so as to understand the distinctive market forces that may be influencing this relatively untapped niche opportunity.

Maple Growth Partners is the first Indian boutique investment research firm that has prepared such an extensive public analytical report focused on the Indian art industry, while others can most likely be categorized as mere market data compilers.

This is just a phase 1 of our overall analysis and we intend to initiate working on the phase 2 targeted towards identifying attractive artwork of promising Indian artists from a long-term investment perspective.

Potential TIC Targets in Sub-Saharan Africa

A South-African subsidiary of a global testing, inspection, certification (TIC) services provider had assigned MGP to identify potential TIC targets in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

The following five sectors / service segments were the focus areas to find the relevant attractive targets:

Food and agriculture safety
Water testing (both domestic and industrial)
Extraction-based inspection and testing (for mining, oiling, etc.)
Energy inspection and testing – for power generation and distribution, renewable energy, etc.
Consumer testing and inspection – software, electronics, etc.

For each identified company, we provided the focused TIC segment, year of incorporation, business description, geographic presence, ownership status, employee count, financials, key executives (name and contact details including LinkedIn bio link), and company contact info. Additionally, we also provided historic transaction specific details and highlighted the possibility of a company looking out for external investors.

In total, we provided a detailed list of ~220 companies of which ~35 were the most relevant ones.

Indian Construction Equipment and Infra Finance Sector Overview

One of our impact investing fund client had asked us to conduct a detailed study within the Indian NBFC market to identify growth segments based on their investment criteria. They were looking for tech-oriented companies with an investment ticket size of less than $1 million.

Then, we compared and evaluated all these segments based on a strict investment parameter framework to come up with a more fact-based (rather than intuitive) investment rationale and go-to-market strategies. We later presented our sector insights, value creation game plan, actionable targets for each of the attractive segments, along with a directory of industry experts and influencers so that our client had the primary first-hand resource to assess the investment opportunities within the identified attractive service segments.