Partnership Philosophy

Since its inception in 1989, FirstService has partnered with more than 300 entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world. Successful management teams choose FirstService as a preferred partner because we share their entrepreneurial values and can provide the resources and strategic capabilities to accelerate growth and take their businesses to the next level. Our operating partners retain control of day-to-day frontline decision-making in their business while maintaining an equity stake in their future growth. Our successful track record has set industry leading benchmarks in terms of value appreciation and partner retention across our two service platforms.

Four attributes of partnership have been at the core of our successful value creation over the last three decades.

Each of our major business leaders owns a significant equity stake in the business they continue to run on a day-to-day basis. Our partners participate financially in the long term growth of the operations and remain responsible for frontline decision-making.

We operate in a decentralized manner, trusting all day-to-day decisions to the people on the front line. We do this with confidence because each of our service lines is operated by a proven management team.

We create value for our shareholders and partners by providing:

• Strategic leadership, advice and counsel
• Sourcing and execution of accretive acquisition opportunities
• Leveraging our scale, experience and infrastructure to create value
• Introducing cross selling opportunities to grow the business
• Sharing of best practices across platforms

Unlike typical financial investors and private equity firms, FirstService does not have a fixed time investment horizon. As a builder of businesses, we are looking to buy and create value in our businesses over the long term. We continually invest in our businesses by providing growth or acquisition capital.