ASCP Exceeds $1B for New Fund

At the end of last year, American Securities Capital Partners LLC (ASCP) locked the deadbolt on its latest buyout fund, as American Securities Partners IV LP raised more than $1 billion on a $750 million target.

Among Fund IV’s limited partners are the William Rosenwald family, the University of Texas Investment Management Co. and affiliates of ASCP. Wealthy families, individuals and related entities make up about half of all commitments to the fund, said ASCP President Michael Fisch. He would not say whether past ASCP fund investors – which include Vasser College, Sun America, Travelers Insurance Co., AMR Investments, DuPont Pension Trust, Goldman Sachs’ private equity group, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the New York State Common Fund – have re-upped their commitments to this latest fund.

Busting targets is nothing new for the New York-based private equity firm. ASCP’s third fund, which was launched near the close of 2000 with a target of $500 million, ended up hitting its $650 million hard cap in less than six months. At the time, Fisch said that the oversubscription of Fund III forced ASCP to “[turn] away signed subscriptions from some and… reduce subscriptions from others to keep our cap.”

The firm’s first fund with outside investors, American Securities Partners LP, closed in December 1994. American Securities Partners II LP, which totaled $350 million, held its final close in 1998. Its third fund, American Securities Partners III LP, closed in July 2001 with $650 million.

ASCP typically makes equity investments of between $30 million and $150 million in middle-market companies with annual revenue of approximately $50 million to $350 million.