Apollo-spinout Nexus Capital sets ambitious target to invest into dislocation

A group of former Apollo Global Management executives is targeting more than $1 billion for its next distressed and special situations fund to invest into the downturn, sources told Buyouts.

The firm, Nexus Capital Management, is one of several high-profile emerging managers that are braving the coronavirus-wrecked markets to seek capital from nervous limited partners.

Los Angeles-based Nexus Capital is in market with Nexus Special Situations Fund III. It’s not clear when the fund hit the market.

No one from Nexus Capital returned a called for comment Friday.

The firm, launched in 2013, is owned by Damian Giangiacomo and Michael Cohen. Nexus Capital focuses on distressed, special situations and private equity investments in middle market companies with capital structures between $300 million and $1 billion.

Nexus Capital targets sectors including industrials, consumer, including retail and food, building products and education, according to Nexus Capital’s Form ADV.

In August 2019, Nexus Capital acquired FTD, an online florist and gift company in a deal valued at $110.9 million. Nexus Capital made the winning bid in a bankruptcy auction in July 2019 for certain assets of FTD and ProFlowers brands, the company said in a statement at the time.

Nexus Capital raised around $500 million for Special Situations Fund II in 2017, according to the person with knowledge of the firm and a Form D fundraising document from the time. As of Dec. 31, 2019, Nexus Capital managed about $1.1 billion, the Form ADV said.

Giangiacomo and Cohen both worked at Apollo for 13 years in the private equity group before leaving and forming Nexus Capital. Other executives at the firm include Partner Daniel Flesh, head of business development who joined in 2018. Flesh worked at Apollo from 2006 to 2017.

Also, the firm hired ex-Alden Global Capital senior analyst Evan Glucoft in 2017, who is a managing director, and managing director Jonathan Whitlock in 2014, who joined from Oak Hill Capital-backed Earth Fare, where he was the vice president of financial planning and analysis.

Several other emerging managers are in the market that most private equity fundraisers believe will be slow and challenging for at least the near future. Other firms include Twist Equity, formed by ex-Guggenheim and Blackstone executive Sean Madnani, Long Arc Capital, formed by ex-Goldman Sachs executive Gaurav Bhandari, Knox Lane, a TPG Growth spinout and Radial Equity, a spinout from Irving Place Capital.

Action Item: Check out Nexus Capital’s Form ADV here: https://bit.ly/2MPxVuh