Bain Capital’s Credit Arm Raises $3.5B

Sankaty Advisors, the debt finance arm of Bain Capital, has raised $3.5 billion in two new specialized credit funds, regulatory filings showed.

The Boston-based firm has raised $2.3 million from two investors for a fund called Sankaty Credit Opportunities V-E2 LP, while a companion fund, Sankaty Credit Opportunities V-A2 LP, has raised $1.2 million from 30 investors, the filings showed.

The firm did not respond by deadline to a request for comment, but Sankaty has in the past divided its funds into distinct pools of capital for different sets of LPs. The current funds’ most direct predecessor, Sankaty Credit Opportunities IV LP, was divided between domestic and offshore funds, according to the Thomson One database of private equity funds.

Such arrangements are not uncommon for international sponsors whose investors come from different legal jurisdictions, with individual funds tweaked for improved tax efficiency based on local laws. And Sankaty, which Bain has developed internally since at least 1997, certainly plays internationally.

In April, for instance, Sankaty was part of a consortium backing Comvest Group, the West Palm Beach, Fla., buyout shop, in a $780 million deal to take private the mobile broadband provider Tekelec of Morrisville, N.C. And in March, Sankaty struck a deal with Lloyds Banking Group to buy a £500 million ($792.36 million) portfolio of mostly British leveraged loans for private equity buyouts, sister news service Reuters reported, citing the Financial Times.

Sankaty has $15.5 billion of assets under management as of Jan. 1, according to the firm’s Web site. It invests in leveraged loans, high-yield bonds, distress, mezzanine debt, structured products and equities. The Web site lists 88 investment professionals in Boston, Chicago, New York, and London, including 18 managing directors.

Known investors include the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System, the San Francisco City and County Retirement System and the South Carolina Retirement Systems, according to Thomson One.