Three Peaks Capital Management

Three Peaks Capital Management

Three Peaks Capital Management was founded in 2013 by Ricky Sandler, who previously spent over a decade as a partner and senior analyst at the long-short equity firm Eminence Capital. The firm launched with a distinct, concentrated activist strategy, applying Sandler's deep experience in small- and mid-cap consumer, real estate, and telecom sectors to force corporate restructuring. The firm typically targets public US companies with market capitalizations between $200 million and $2 billion, favoring those where a clear catalyst exists — an underperforming real estate portfolio, a non-core brand, or a lagging division primed for a sale or spinoff. Three Peaks deploys capital through direct equity stakes and files public 13D schedules, using its position to secure board seats and push management toward value-unlocking transactions. Historically, its campaigns have spanned restaurant chains, telecom infrastructure providers, and specialty retailers; confirmed past positions include the parent company of Bob Evans Farms, where the firm successfully advocated for the sale of its packaged-foods division before the restaurant chain was sold to Golden Gate Capital (per Reuters, 2017). The firm also waged a public campaign at telecom operator IDT Corporation, calling for a spinoff of its real estate and energy assets. Since inception, Sandler has kept the team intentionally compact, outsourcing certain back-office functions while maintaining sole investment decision-making authority. The firm runs one core fund with a multi-year lockup, and it has not expanded into permanent capital vehicles, separate managed accounts, or adjacent credit operations. In early 2024, the firm disclosed a new activist stake in a publicly traded casual-dining chain, reinforcing its focus on hospitality and real-estate-rich operating companies (per SEC filing, February 2024). What separates Three Peaks from other small-activist peers is the duration of its campaigns, which rarely appear as quick-flip engagements. Sandler has stayed in some positions for upward of five years, functioning as a de facto strategic advisor to boards while the restructuring thesis plays out. That long-horizon approach, paired with a background in hedge-fund analysis rather than investment banking, produces campaign mechanics grounded in operational nuance rather than raw financial engineering.