Our History

In 1987, Chicago native Jeff Hecktman founded The Hilco Trading Company (HTC) after advising his family industrial supply business on a restructuring effort. Throughout the 1990s, The Hilco Trading Company (HTC) handled a multitude of industrial, retail and wholesale liquidation/disposition deals and significantly grew its valuation and appraisal practice, becoming well know for its understanding of asset value and monetizing assets. While expanding its own business lines, the company partnered with advisors, consultants and even other liquidation firms that could provide complementary core competencies and bring added value to its clients.  As a privately held company it also began successfully deploying capital into deals on an opportunistic basis.

The early 2000s marked a period of high growth for Hilco. The company added a range of specialized financial solutions and service offerings in the US, Europe, Mexico and Asia. These included industrial auction services, real estate services, intangible asset services such as trademarks and domain names, accounts receivable solutions, brand licensing and restructuring work. A new real estate platform called Hilco Redevelopment Partners (HRP) was also launched in 2012, providing a solution for acquiring and remediating old industrial manufacturing facilities and developing them into new and green uses.  It was also during this period that the Hilco Trading Company established its unique holding company operating structure with distinct operating companies, each led by experienced executives with proven expertise. This structure fostered both an entrepreneurial and collaborative spirt by enabling these leaders to build their own best-in-class businesses while also collaborating with their peers across Hilco to provide clients with ever-more comprehensive and customized offerings to address their distinct challenges.

In 2015, the privately held company was rebranded as Hilco Global, reflecting both the expansion of its geographic footprint and the breadth of its Asset Smarter solutions capabilities. Today, Hilco Global and its more than 20 business units deliver an extensive suite of Valuation, Monetization, Advisory, and Capital solutions that help businesses, their lenders and advisors around the world identify and manage through the critical moments of inflection – whether driven by growth, the need for scale, volatile market conditions, a desire to sell/monetize or the need for funding to enable expansion – that inevitably occur over the course of every business’ lifecycle.  In 2019, Hilco Global sold 27.27% of the holding company to Canada’s largest pension and insurance fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ).  This investment partnership supports the long-term strategy and continued growth of Hilco Global by providing significant long-term capital to complete more transactions as the company continues to expand.  As a strategic investor in capital intensive deals, CDPQ’s involvement is helping fuel Hilco Global’s expansion into special situation real estate, IP, retail and consumer brands, and intellectual property deals.