CHS Capital Spawning Three PE Firms

Brian Simmons, managing partner of CHS Capital, along with partners David Hawkins and Marcus George, are launching Shorehill Capital to sift for targets with enterprise values of $25 million to $300 million in the industrial and distribution sectors.

Tom Formolo, Ed Lhee, Jocelyn Stanley and John Pircon are named on a single-page Web site for New Harbor Capital LLC that includes the message “coming soon” on the home page. The quartet is also named as investment professionals on the Web site for CHS Capital, the Chicago buyout shop, formerly known as Code Hennessy & Simmons, now winding down.

While Simmons and Formolo will both be launching new firms, the two buyout pros and others will retain their management duties to run the existing portfolio at CHS Capital, a source said.

Meanwhile, Daniel Hennessy, a partner at CHS Capital, has formed Hennessy Capital LLC as a successor vehicle to Code, Hennessy & Simmons, a source told Buyouts.

Formolo, who has been a partner at CHS Capital and an investment team leader, has been a management committee member who joined CHS Capital in 1990. His specialties at the firm included business services, health and wellness and education.

Lhee’s LinkedIn profile lists his current title as partner at New Harbor Capital LLC. Recently a partner at CHS Capital, Lhee joined the firm in 1997 and also worked on its business services, health and wellness and education investments.

Stanley’s LinkedIn profile lists her current title as principal at New Harbor Capital. She’s been a vice president at CHS Capital after joining the firm as an associate in 2007 after working at Wachovia Capital Markets LLC in its investment banking division.

Pircon is listed as senior associate at New Harbor Capital LLC on his LinkedIn page. He joined CHS Capital as an associate in 2011.

Emails to Formolo, Lhee, Stanley and Pircon by Buyouts were not returned.

“We made a decision in late 2012 not to pursue another fund with the broad group of CHS partners and others,” Simmons told Buyouts in March. His comment came about a year after two senior CHS Capital staffers, Andrew Code and Steven Brown, moved over to Promus Capital.

Originally founded in 1988, CHS Capital raised $1.3 billion in its vintage 2005 fund, CHS Private Equity V LP. Past backers included the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. and Washington State Investment Board.

CHS Capital certainly won’t be the first Chicago area buyout firm to spawn other firms.Cressey & Co., Thoma Bravo, and GTCR all trace their roots to the 1980 firm Golder Thoma & Co.