About

Cheverny Capital Inc. is an independent, partner-owned merchant bank headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Cheverny has two principal activities, both focused on global growth companies:

1. Principal Investing via Cheverny vehicles and co-investment partners
2. Advisory (M&A and financing)

Cheverny’s partners – all of whom have backgrounds at leading global investment banks, private banks and corporations – founded the firm in reaction to the conflicts of interest so clearly surfaced by the recent financial and economic crisis.

In the Advisory business Cheverny believes that large, integrated financial services firms serve many competing interests and generate an alarmingly high percentage of revenues trading as counterparties to their clients in public markets. Cheverny is fully independent and able to offer conflict-free advice to clients.

Cheverny’s private equity investing arm is highly focused on specific certain market segments and seeks to build fully-aligned partnerships with investee companies.

The partners of the firm each have in excess of two decades experience as investment bankers and private equity investors at firms such as JPMorgan, Pictet & Cie., RBC Capital Markets, CIBC Wood Gundy and Hydro-Quebec International. Cheverny’s principals have advised on or led investments and cross-border transactions in many markets around the world. The partners have also served on the boards of both public and private companies. Cheverny’s team is amongst the most experienced in its market.

Companies that do business with Cheverny can expect the full attention of senior partners of the firm.

Core areas of focus include:

  • Technology, Media & Telecom
  • Energy
  • Emerging Markets
  • Specialty Food & Agriculture
  • Specialty Financial Services

Cheverny has strategic alliances with partner firms in the UK and Switzerland.

Senior Principals of the Firm

Cheverny was founded in late 2009 by Benn Mikula and Jean-François Sauvé.

Benn Mikula has, during his career, been Managing Director and Head of European Technology Investment Banking at JPMorgan in London as well as Managing Director and Head of Technology Equities Research at RBC Capital Markets (where he was the #1 ranked analyst in the sector for several years and developed the Whistler Technology, Media & Telecoms Conference). He sits on the board of MegaBrands (MB – TSX) and Sanimax Industries, is an observer on the board of FiberMedia and has been a founding director of a venture capital backed technology company. He has also variously been a member of the fundraising boards of the Montreal Neurological Hospital & Research Institute and the Montreal Childrens Hospital, President of the Acorn Society, and a patron of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He holds both a B.A. and an M.A. from McGill University.

Jean-François Sauvé has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry. He began his career Barclays Bank in Toronto in the Foreign Exchange, Money Market and Corporate Banking departments. He subsequently joined McLeod Young Weir Limited (now ScotiaMcLeod Inc.) and in 1993, became a Director of the Corporate and Government Finance Department. Prior to co founding Cheverny he was President of Pictet Canada L.P., where he was responsible for the North American operations of Pictet & Cie, Switzerland’s foremost private bank. Mr. Sauvé is also a principal advisor to a major European family office. Mr. Sauvé sits on the board of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (Québec Region), Fondation du Festival de Lanaudière and the Buildings Committee of The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Past affiliations include Héritage Montréal, Montréal Passion Vin (Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Foundation) and The Advisory Committee on the Official Residences of Canada. He is Chairman of the Jeanne Sauvé Foundation and President of the Sauvé Scholars Foundation. He completed his degree in Business Administration at l’école des Hautes études Commerciales (HEC Montréal) and later earned an MBA at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

Mike Bouchard is a senior partner of the firm. Mike is a veteran investment banker having spent over 20 years in the Canadian financial services industry as a Managing Director at firms such as RBC Capital Markets and CIBC Wood Gundy. At these firms he covered both large publicly traded corporate accounts and small-mid cap entrepreneurial clients. Over the years, Mike has garnered extensive experience in cross-border merger & acquisition transactions. He is also a member of the board of the Cancer Research Society. Mike is a graduate of Université de Montréal Law School and obtained an MBA from Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario.

François Dell’Aniello is a member of the Bar of the Province of Quebec and is the firm’s general counsel. During his business career he has served as Executive Vice President of Hydro Quebec International (where he had responsibility for negotiating and managing a number of international energy investments and joint ventures) as well as EVP of Axor.