Onex Corporation is an investment manager founded in 1984. The firm manages capital on behalf of Onex shareholders, institutional investors and high net worth clients around the world. As of September 30, 2022, Onex had approximately US$47.2 billion of assets under management.

History

Founder

Gerry Schwartz Gerald W. Schwartz, OC (born 1941) is the founder, chairman and CEO of Onex Corporation. Schwartz has a net worth of US$1.5 billion, according to Forbes. Early life and career Schwartz was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He graduated from Kelvin H ...

had previously worked at

Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The comp ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

during the 1970s, under investor

Jerome Kohlberg Jr. Jerome Kohlberg Jr. (July 10, 1925 – July 30, 2015) was an American businessman and investor. He was an early pioneer in the private equity and leveraged buyout industries founding private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and later Koh ...

, who later became a founding partner of

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

. Schwartz returned to Canada, where he started working with

Izzy Asper Israel Harold "Izzy" Asper (August 11, 1932– October 7, 2003) was a Canadian tax lawyer and media magnate. He was the founder and owner of the now-defunct TV and media company CanWest Global Communications Corp and father to its former CEO and ...

. Schwartz founded Onex in 1984 and took the company public in 1987. The firm focused on private equity investing in North America using capital from its balance sheet for the first 16 years of its history. In 2000, it started raising investment vehicles with third-party capital with the launch of ONCAP, which focuses on smaller and middle market opportunities. In 2003, the first Onex Partners fund was raised. Today, the majority of Onex’ private equity investments are made through these two platforms. In June 2007,

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

sold Allison Transmission to financial investors

Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...

and Onex Corporation. Together with the Canadian pension fund, Tomkins was taken over in 2010, but Onex only held 14% of the shares. At the end of 2017, Onex acquired SMG, one of the world's largest event venue operators with over 200 stadiums, arenas, exhibition and convention centers, theaters and science centers worldwide. In 2019, Onex acquired

Gluskin Sheff Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. is a Canadian independent wealth management firm that manages investment portfolios for investors, including entrepreneurs, professionals, family trusts, private charitable foundations and estates. The company was ...

, a Toronto-based wealth manager with public equity and public credit strategies. Due to the effects of

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Onex suffered a net loss of $1.1 billion US dollars in the quarter ended March 31.

Private equity investments

Onex Corporation purchased

WestJet WestJet Airlines Ltd. is a Canadian airline headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, near Calgary International Airport. It is the second-largest Canadian airline, behind Air Canada, operating an average of 777 flights and carrying more than 66,130 ...

for $5 billion Canadian Dollars, through its subsidiary Kestrel Bidco in December 2019.

References

External links

ONEX
(company website) {{Authority control Financial services companies established in 1984 Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Private equity firms of Canada Holding companies of Canada Companies based in Toronto Holding companies established in 1984 Canadian companies established in 1984 Investment companies of Canada 1980s initial public offerings