ABRY Partners Closes Two Funds In Less Than 90 Days

ABRY Partners LLC at the end of March closed on close $3 billion in commitments for two separate funds, one of which features a premium carry, a source close to the fundraising effort told Buyouts.

The Boston-based mid-market firm raised $1.6 billion for its buyout fund, ABRY Partners VII LP, and $1.2 billion for its debt fund, ABRY Advanced Securities Fund II LP. The firm started raising the funds in early and late January.

The quick fundraisings are a stunning feat given the difficulty many firms are experiencing on the fundraising trail and comes soon after news broke that another Boston-based buyout firm, Berkshire Partners, has so far raised $4 billion for its eighth buyout fund.

The equity fund will be deployed in pursuit of ABRY’s strategy of making equity investments of $50 million to $125 million in buyouts of mid-market companies in the media, telecommunications and business information services sectors. The debt fund will be used to invest in first-lien senior secured bank debt in companies in ABRY’s target industries.

ABRY’s equity fund, like at least two of its previous two predecessors, features a premium carry of 30 percent, while the debt fund features a standard 2 percent management fee and 20 percent carry fee, our source said. While ABRY charges a higher carry than most of its peers, the firm does not charge any deal fees or portfolio company fees, the source said.

Some press reports have suggested ABRY was pressuring investors to make investments in both funds, though our source said that was not true.

Andrew Banks and Royce Yudkoff, who previously shared responsibility for consulting firm Bain & Co.’s media practice, founded ABRY in 1989. One of the firm’s most recent deal came in February, when it sold the TriZetto Group Inc., a Greenwood Village, Colo.-based provider of network management, sales automation and other health care information technology services, to Gateway EDI Inc. for an undisclosed amount.