Gov. Scott doesn’t let politics get in way of investing in firm that believes in climate change

By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org 

When Rick Scott ran for governor in 2010, he told a reporter he wasn’t convinced that global warming was real. In 2015, the Scott Administration was reported to have told state employees to lay off using “climate change” and “global warming” in official communications.

Today, the governor’s office dodges questions about Scott’s position on the use of those terms, saying instead, “Governor Scott is focused on real solutions to protect our environment.”

Still, the ultra-wealthy Scott hasn’t let his politics get in the way of making money. Through First Lady Ann Scott, the governor has a substantial financial stake in a sizable mosquito control company that recently declared on its Facebook page that “mosquitos will only get worse thanks to #climatechange” and “#globalwarming.”

The company is Mosquito Control Services LLC, and it had a banner year in 2016.

The Scotts’ big bet on the Zika fighter MCS is via G. Scott Capital Partners, a Connecticut investment firm in which Ann Scott is a major investor. The firm is run by Gregory Scott, no relation to the governor, and two other men who worked for the governor’s old Naples-based private equity firm Richard L. Scott Investments (RLSI) – and obscured that connection by omitting it from their online biographies until after Florida Bulldog disclosed it three years ago.

Gregory Scott has described Ann Scott, an interior decorator and owner of AS Interiors LLC, as a “passive investor” in G. Scott Capital Partners.

Mosquito Control Services’ Facebook page from April 27, 2017

Florida Bulldog first reported on Gov. Scott’s indirect and undisclosed ownership interest in MCS last August. Scott’s office would not comment on Ann Scott’s ownership interest in MCS.

Scott Capital, as it’s known online, manages several private funds and “family accounts” for a handful of extremely wealthy clients. The firm thoroughly vets potential company investments before negotiating a purchase. Likewise, the firm monitors the performance of the companies it acquires. Its investment program “aims to generate high financial returns by making direct control investments in established, U.S.-headquartered lower middle market companies” like MCS.

Taking control

As of January 2017, Scott Capital was holding approximately $102 million of its client assets.

GSCP MCS LLC was formed in Delaware in August 2014 to recapitalize and take control of MCS, according to reports filed by Scott Capital with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In March 2016, the fund was valued at just under $10 million. Twelve months later, the fund’s reported value had risen nearly 28 percent to $12,715,853.

Mosquito Control Services is an insecticide spraying company that’s based in Louisiana but does business across the Gulf Coast, including Florida, according to its website. It boasts a spraying “fleet of Beechcraft King Air turbine-powered twin-engine aircraft” and says the company’s primary customers are municipalities. MCS does not do business with the State of Florida.

MCS manager Steven Pavlovich did not return a phone message seeking comment.

The scientific consensus is that global warming and climate change will bring damaging sea-level rise that will create new mosquito breeding grounds and likely hike infection rates for mosquito-borne diseases like Zika, malaria and West Nile virus.

Like the Scotts and their advisors, stock market analysts see investor opportunity in the pest control services market, particularly the mosquito control segment. One recent report by Future Market Insights forecast solid industry growth over the next decade citing a variety of reasons including “prevalent weather conditions supporting insect growth.”

MCS, through its Facebook post, made clear its belief that global warming and climate change are very real concerns. It also shared an April 20 New York Times Magazine article with the ominous title, “Why the Menace of Mosquitoes Will Only Get Worse – Climate change is altering the environment in ways that increase the potential for viruses like Zika.”