Principal investment & acquisitions
Northstone Capital Holdings acquires and owns cash-producing assets with its own capital: Main Street businesses, oil and gas interests, and real estate, supported by a disciplined book of equities, commodities and fixed income.
About
We invest our own money and answer to no outside clock. That lets us buy assets for what they earn, keep the people who run them, and stay patient when markets are not.
Mission
To hold what is built well, and let it compound, quietly and without hurry.
Vision
A structure meant to outlast the people who founded it.
We buy to own. Sellers deal with the person making the decision, and operators keep running what they know best.
Our core is in things that produce cash: operating businesses, minerals in the ground and buildings people use.
Market positions are sized to protect the core. Liquidity is kept on hand so we are never a forced seller.
Thesis
Our approach rests on a few convictions about where durable returns come from. The criteria below follow from them, and every opportunity is measured against the same list.
A large share of small and mid-sized American businesses are owned by people nearing retirement, many with no family member or partner to take over. These companies often have long customer relationships, experienced staff and steady earnings. They need a patient buyer who will keep them running, not a strategy that breaks them apart.
Energy, land and buildings stay essential through every cycle. Mineral and royalty interests share in production without carrying drilling costs, and well-located property earns rent from needs that do not go away. Owning a share of these inputs ties our returns to real demand rather than to sentiment.
Prices for businesses, land and securities swing more than their underlying value does. A holder with permanent capital and cash in reserve can buy when others must sell, and never has to sell when it would rather hold. Our liquid book and fixed income reserve exist to keep that position.
Cash from each holding is reinvested into the next. Over time, a group of modest, profitable assets under one owner builds a base that a single large bet cannot match, and it does so with far less risk of a permanent loss.
Criteria
Portfolio
Northstone concentrates its capital in six areas, each chosen for the cash it produces and the role it plays alongside the others.
| Area | Focus |
|---|---|
| Public markets | Equity index futures and listed securities |
| Oil & gas | Mineral, royalty and lease interests |
| Main Street M&A | Owner-operated service businesses |
| Real estate | Income property and development sites |
| Commodities | Energy and metals futures |
| Fixed income | Treasuries and short-duration credit |
What we do
Acquisitions are the center of the business. The market book supports them: it keeps capital working between deals and keeps us close to the prices that drive our real assets.
CoreAcquisitions
We buy established, owner-operated businesses from founders who are ready to step back. We focus on companies with a long record, loyal customers and a team that wants to stay, and we work with owners on a transition that protects what they built.
Typical situations
EnergyReal assets
We acquire mineral, royalty and leasehold interests in producing and near-term basins, and lease land to operators who drill it. Royalty income comes off the top of production, with no drilling costs.
PropertyReal assets
We take land and underused sites from acquisition through entitlement to finished, income-producing property, working with local builders and engineers.
PropertyReal assets
We own stabilized income property for the long term, including small multifamily and owner-occupied buildings, and underwrite each one on in-place rent.
MarketsLiquid book
A principal book of listed equities, index futures and options, run with defined risk limits on every position. It keeps capital productive between acquisitions.
MarketsLiquid book
Positions in energy and metals futures. They express our view on the inputs our real assets depend on and hedge the oil and gas interests we hold.
MarketsReserve
A smaller allocation to Treasuries and short-duration credit. It holds the liquidity that lets us close quickly and never sell an asset under pressure.
How a transaction works
A short call to understand the asset and what the owner wants.
We sign an NDA before any financials change hands.
Price, structure and timing set out in plain terms.
Financial, legal, title and operational review.
Funds, documents and a transition plan agreed together.
We hold for the long term and support the team in place.
A note on conversations
Owners, brokers and operators who reach out about an asset are treated with discretion. Details are shared only under a confidentiality agreement.
Insights
A few times a year we write down what we are watching and why. Short, plain and focused on the sectors we invest in. Open a note to read it in full.
Principal note · October 2026
The owner-retirement wave and what it means for buyers who plan to keep the business running.
Much of American Main Street is owned by people who are close to stepping away. Census Bureau data from 2023 show that about half of business owners are over 55, and roughly one in four is 65 or older. McKinsey estimates that around six million small businesses will go through an ownership change by 2035, and that more than a million of them are healthy enough to sell.
Many of these owners have no succession plan. There is often no family member who wants the business and no partner ready to buy it. Without a buyer, a profitable company can simply close when its founder retires, taking jobs and customer relationships with it.
Most institutional capital is not built for this. Large funds need large deals, and a well-run service business with a few dozen employees is usually too small to interest them. That leaves room for owner-minded buyers who will run the company rather than strip it.
Our approach follows from that. We look for businesses with long operating records, loyal customers and teams that want to stay. We value continuity over reinvention: the people who built the company's reputation are the reason it is worth buying. Where it helps both sides, we use structures such as seller financing and a planned transition period, so the founder can step back on a timeline that protects what they built.
We see this less as a market opportunity than as a generational handoff. Done well, it keeps good businesses open and gives their founders a dignified exit.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau ownership data (2023), as cited by the Olin Brookings Commission, Washington University in St. Louis (2026); McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility (2026).
This note reflects our own views. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security or interest.
Principal note · October 2026
How mineral owners get paid, and why we prefer income that comes before drilling costs.
Every oil and gas well divides its revenue among several kinds of owners, and the differences between them decide who carries the risk.
A mineral owner holds the rights to what lies underground. Few mineral owners drill. Instead they lease those rights to an operator in exchange for an upfront bonus and a royalty: a fixed share of production revenue paid without bearing the cost of drilling or operating the well. On federal land, for example, the Bureau of Land Management sets that royalty at 12.5 percent.
The company that takes the lease holds the working interest. It pays to drill, complete and operate the well, and in return keeps the larger share of revenue left after royalties, known as its net revenue interest. When a well is strong, the working interest earns the most. When a well is dry or prices fall, it absorbs the losses and can be called on for more capital.
An overriding royalty sits between the two. It is carved out of the working interest, usually by someone who assembled or sold the lease, and pays a share of production with no cost obligation. It lasts only as long as the lease does.
We prefer interests that are paid before costs: royalties and overrides on acreage near active development. They never fund a dry hole and never receive a capital call. The trade-off is control. A royalty owner cannot decide when or whether a well is drilled, so the quality of the operator and the activity around a tract matter as much as the rock itself.
This note reflects our own views. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security or interest.
Principal note · October 2026
Why a reserve of Treasuries is the cheapest insurance an acquirer can buy.
Idle cash looks like a drag on returns. For a company that buys businesses, land and mineral interests, it is closer to a tool.
Sellers care about certainty. An owner choosing between offers often prefers the buyer who can close on time without depending on a lender's approval or a market window. A ready reserve lets us move when a good asset appears, rather than after someone better funded has already bought it.
Reserves also prevent forced decisions. Prices for businesses, land and securities move far more than the value underneath them. A holder who needs cash in a downturn has to sell at the worst moment. A holder with a reserve can wait, and sometimes buy from those who cannot.
We keep that reserve mainly in short-term U.S. Treasury bills. They are backed by the federal government, mature within months, and can be turned into cash quickly. Their return is modest compared with equities, and over long periods inflation erodes part of it. We accept that cost in exchange for money that is there when we need it.
The reserve is not where we look for returns. Its job is to protect the core holdings and to let the rest of the balance sheet stay patient.
This note reflects our own views. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security or interest.
Notes are published on this page as they are written. They describe our own thinking and are not recommendations to buy or sell anything.
Correspondence
This site explains who we are and how we work. For questions about Northstone, or about an asset you own, you can write to us at the address below.
Miami, Florida