Blackpoint Seeks $200M For Debut Services Fund

Newly formed Blackpoint Equity Partners is wading into the lower-middle-market buyout pond with a debut fund, Blackpoint Equity Partners LP. The target is $200 million, according to someone with knowledge of the situation.

Founders and General Partners Kevin Brandon and Stephen McCall established the Manhattan-based shop in late 2007 after leaving Seaport Capital, a private equity firm also targeting the lower middle market and where they had worked together since 1998. The new fund has a major institutional investor anchoring it.

The vehicle is focused on making control investments in information services, business services, media and communications services. Blackpoint Equity hopes to hold a first close early this fall and has retained placement agent Atlantic Pacific Capital to help raise the fund. The firm declined to comment on the fundraising.

At Seaport Capital, Brandon and McCall invested in companies with market capitalizations of between $20 million and $100 million and equity needs of $10 million to $35 million in the marketing services, custom publishing, online advertising, communication towers, business process outsourcing, business-to-business publishing and cable industries. In one of its recent exits, Seaport Capital sold Everest Broadband, a provider of high-speed communications services in the Kansas City market, to SureWest Communications for $173 million in cash. Seaport Capital has 14 companies in its portfolio and has exited from 15 investments.

Seaport Capital Partners III LP closed in 2006, having raised $78.5 million, short of its original target of $300 million set when the fund was created in 2004. Seaport Capital established its fourth fund in April of this year, seeking to raise $200 million, according to a regulatory filing. Executives were unavailable for comment.