Bio

Kip joined the present firm in 1984 and helped expand its capital and broaden the scope of its activities after a successful career developing and marketing computer software applications for major financial institutions. He is the experienced leader of Porter White’s corporate finance activities which include mergers and acquisitions, private placements of debt and equity securities, and strategic planning and new business development. National Tube Holding Company, Inc. was formed to bring together a talented and experienced business manager and National Copper and Smelting Company, Inc. Kip negotiated the terms of purchase, organized a group of equity partners, arranged for financing and closed the transaction. In the case of Associated Doctors Insurance Company, PW&Co was hired by the majority stockholder to find a buyer while the company itself retained a prominent regional investment banking firm with substantial insurance company experience. By paying attention to the client’s objectives and conducting a focused search, Kip found the buyer who closed on the deal when the other investment banking firm failed to perform. When Diversified Products, Inc., a prominent Alabama company, was placed on the market by its international conglomerate owner, Kip identified an Alabama businessman as a prospective acquirer, organized and directed his offer, prevailed in an auction contest and arranged all of the financing for the acquisition. Southern BioSystems, Inc. (SBS), a biomaterial manufacturing and controlled release formulation development company, was created with PW&Co’s assistance. This company purchased a biodegradable polymer manufacturing operation from a leading pharmaceutical company and subsequently developed its own proprietary patented biodegradable materials and control-release formulations. Porter, White arranged the initial and two subsequent equity investments including investments by industry strategic partners. Subsequently, SBS was sold to a public company allowing all investors to realize significant returns. Kip led PW&Co’s team in support of SRI’s spin-off of its pharmaceutical formulation division creating Brookwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Operating as a private for-profit enterprise, Brookwood doubled its revenues and significantly expanded its intellectual property portfolio while reporting profits every quarter. This was accomplished in less than three years. A larger public company recognized this out-performance and purchased Brookwood as well as invested in its growth. PW&Co was asked to raise equity for Resource Management Service, LLC, a professional forestry management company. The equity was needed in a short timeframe to allow RMS to bid for and complete acquisitions and management agreements on large timberland tracts on behalf of institutional investors. RMS is now the largest professional forestry management organization in the U.S. Kip undertook to value and clear highly restrictive title covenants through the sale of a golf club whose property had greater economic value redeveloped for residential and retail use. Understanding the mutual interest of the large number of parties was essential to this success. Other significant transactions have included the sale of nursing homes, the consolidations of cardiothoracic surgery practices, the sale of a computer components manufacturer, the merger of substance abuse treatment centers, the merger of environmental equipment companies, and the sale to a national consolidator of a regional provider of information systems to office-based physicians. Kip is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a degree in economics.