Member, Emerald Coast Holdings LLC
Peter DeCaprio is a Member of Emerald Coast Holdings LLC, investing in lower middle market companies and across the credit markets, from venture debt to distressed situations. He works from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Boston, Massachusetts.
Areas of focus
Six lanes, one method: read the documents and price the downside first.
Established operating businesses too small for large sponsors and too complex for a bank alone. He weighs the durability of the customer base, the quality of the reporting, and whether the owner has a clear reason to bring in outside capital.
Loans to growth companies that have raised equity and want more runway without pricing another round. The underwriting centers on cash burn, the intent of the existing investors, and the collateral and covenants that protect the lender if the plan slips.
Debt bought when the price reflects forced selling more than the value of the assets and claims behind it. The work is reading documents closely, mapping where each claim sits in the capital structure, and judging what a patient holder would recover.
Issuer by issuer analysis of below investment grade bonds. He studies interest coverage from real cash flow, refinancing walls, the fine print on liens and guarantees, and whether the yield pays for the risk of default rather than for a rating.
Directly negotiated loans to companies that prefer one lender who understands the business over a syndicate that does not. Terms are shaped deal by deal: amortization, security, reporting, and covenants that give an early warning when performance drifts.
Listed funds whose shares trade at a discount or premium to the assets they hold. He tracks the gap between price and net asset value, the cost of any borrowing inside the fund, distribution policy, and the events that tend to narrow a discount.
Telecommunications sector analysis and public equities remain standing research lanes alongside the credit work.
All eight areas of focus
Approach
Every opportunity starts as a list of ways it could fail. He works through the cash flows, the claims ahead of his own, and the terms that govern a downside before spending any time on the upside case. A good story is not a margin of safety; price and structure are.
The useful work is done on situations the market has stopped watching: small issuers, unloved sectors, structures that take days to read. He builds his own view from financial statements, loan documents, and conversations with operators, then compares it with the consensus. Where the two disagree and the reasons hold, the position gets sized.
Value in private companies and stressed credit rarely arrives on a quarterly schedule. He plans to hold for as long as a plan takes to play out, and stays close to the businesses he backs: working sessions with management, help with financing decisions, and a direct conversation when conditions change.
In the media
Peter DeCaprio writes for Entrepreneur on capital, credit, and how owners should think about financing a business.
An interview on the investing strategies at Crow Point Partners, the Boston firm Peter DeCaprio founded and led earlier in his career.
He is also known for television commentary, including a CNBC segment in which he argued a short thesis on Tesla, and has written for Thrive Global, Vocal, and TechBullion.
More on his media work
Get in touch
Peter DeCaprio takes conversations with operators seeking a capital partner, lenders and advisors with a situation that needs a careful reader, and co-investors comparing notes on credit and lower middle market opportunities. Earlier in his career he founded and led Crow Point Partners and then FlowPoint Partners in Boston; today the work runs through Emerald Coast Holdings.
Email Peter DeCaprio