News

Ex-Anteon CEO builds new firm with old team

Washington Business Journal - November 3, 2006

by Ben Hammer Staff Reporter

Joe Kampf is reuniting his old management team to recreate their finest hour -- building a company that sold for $2.2 billion.

Kampf was brought in to head up Fairfax-based tech firm Anteon in 1996 after New York buyout fund Caxton-Iseman bought the company. His team used 10 acquisitions to increase Anteon's annual revenue to $1.5 billion in 2005 from $110 million in 1996.

Anteon's sale to General Dynamics in June delivered Caxton a return worth 23 times its original investment of $70 million.

Now, Kampf and six top lieutenants have formed CoVant Management to try to repeat that success by acquiring companies in the homeland defense market. They plan to open a McLean office this month. The company will tap the financial resources of Caxton, which manages $13 billion in funds, to make the deals.

CoVant wants to acquire companies that have $30 million to $150 million in annual revenue and provide niche technology services in homeland security and intelligence for the Defense Department as well as other federal, state and local agencies.

Kampf is widely considered one of the most skilled dealmakers in town. His quick return to the market is good news for small and medium-size businesses looking for buyers and for the bankers and other professionals who earn their living from the area's vibrant mergers-and-acquisition scene.

"It represents another opportunity for owners of government contractors, and a well-known one that the community and myself have had a lot of experience with," says Rick Knop, an investment banker to defense contractors. "Clearly Anteon being one of the great successes of our government contracting community had ripple effects throughout the local economy."

Knop and his team at BB&T Capital Markets/Windsor Group worked on five Anteon acquisitions, mostly representing the sellers.

The group formed Windsor Mezzanine Fund in February 2005 to provide $3 million to $10 million in financing to government contractors generating $10 million to $100 million. The fund pursues investments rather than acquisitions of companies.

Anteon's acquisition by General Dynamics, one of the largest of U.S. defense companies, provided Caxton with one of its biggest returns ever.

Now, Kampf is out to do it all again. Albeit in a different way.

CoVant's strategy is different from the one Kampf pursued at Anteon, which provided a full menu of technology services to all branches of the military and the Department of Homeland Security. In contrast, CoVant will build several companies providing deep capabilities to a subset of customers. ___ Veteran roster

CoVant Management consists of top former Anteon executives:

• Joe Kampf, former CEO

• Mark Heilman, former executive VP of corporate development

• Sy Moskowitz, former executive VP of technology and risk

• Roger Gurner, former senior VP of business development

• Gerry Dorros, former VP of corporate development

• Jason Kampf, former head of research group (and Joe Kampf's son)

• James Heilman, former managing director of CSP Associates, a boutique investment bank that advised Anteon.

E-mail: BHAMMER@bizjournals.com Phone: 703/258-0831

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