ArcLight Shines with $950M Fund I Close

The prospects for power-related leveraged buyouts received a big boost as ArcLight Capital Partners LLC closed its inaugural fund with $950 million. The new vehicle is focused on buyouts throughout the entire power market value chain, and has invested or committed over $400 million into 14 different deals.

Boston-based ArcLight Capital launched its fund-raising efforts last September with a core commitment from John Hancock Life Insurance Co., which had previously employed ArcLight Capital managing partner Daniel Revers and Robb Turner. The two co-founded ArcLight about a year ago.

Other limited partners included WestLB AG, Stanford University and CDP Capital-Americas. Lehman Brothers acted as placement agent on the deal.

“The reason the fund was launched was to capitalize on a power sector that historically has not seen much private investment,” Revers says. “We are interested in power generation, but also in companies focused on everything from gas and coal to transmission and storage to transportation and distribution.”

ArcLight Capital is willing to take either majority or minority stakes in deals, but is particularly adverse to auctions. Of the 14 companies already in the new fund’s portfolio, only three came via auction. “A lot of us here have been in this business for a long time, and know where to look for good deals,” Revers says.

Listed in the ArcLight Capital portfolio are such companies as Epsilon Power Holdings, Fort Point Power, DG Power, Javelin Energy and Trout Coal Holdings. The firm is also a partner in WHP Acquisition LLP, a joint venture with Aquila Inc. developed to acquire Western Hub Properties and its underlying Lodi Gas Storage Facility from JPMorgan Partners and Haddington Partners for $220 million. That deal was originally announced in August of 2001, but ArcLight is still working on the deal. “We have some people out there today,” Revers says.

ArcLight is fully staffed with 16 employees in its Boston headquarters and another five people in its New York office. In addition to the ArcLight Energy Partners Fund I, the firm also operates ArcLight Financial LLC, which conducts financial advisory business with respect to transactions in the power industry.

Contact Dan Primack