Background on CI Capital Partners and CoVant

CI Capital Partners LLC lists defense and government services as an area of investment focus. In 1996 CI Capital Partners acquired the company that became Anteon International Corporation for $47.5M, including a total of $32.5M in equity investment ($10M upfront and then $22.5M in 1999). Anteon provided IT and Engineering services to federal Government customers. CI grew revenues at Anteon from around $100M annual to $1.5B, with EBITDA around $140M. Anteon did an IPO in 2002 and then sold to General Dynamics in June 2006, for $2.2B (cash). 

On the heels of this exit, CI formed the firm CoVant with some former Anteon management, including CEO Joseph M. Kampf. CoVant's strategy would be to "make acquisitions of companies providing advanced solutions for the national defense, homeland security, information technology and government technology services markets." 

In 2008 CoVant bought A-T Solutions, which provides anti/counter terrorism services to the U.S. Government. But beyond that there isn't much else listed in their portfolio. GEN Shelton and GEN Kern (now President and COO of AM General) sit on CoVant's board. It will be interesting to see if their acquisitions pick up or not during 2010, and even more interesting if they can repeat the success of the Anteon investment.