Ex-JPMorgan Affiliate Looks To SWFs As It Gears Up For Fund III

Firm: CCMP Capital Advisors LLC

Fund: CCMP Capital Investors III LP

Target: $3.4 billion

Placement Agent: TBD

CCMP Capital Advisors LLC, the former affiliate of JPMorgan Chase & Co., expects to start raising its third buyout fund some time next year, two sources familiar with the firm’s plans told Buyouts. Executives have been developing relationships with sovereign wealth funds as they continue to replace JPMorgan as a source of capital.

CCMP Capital has committed about 70 percent of the $3.4 billion predecessor fund, vintage 2006, suggesting that a couple more deals could trigger its next fundraise. The exact target for Fund III hasn’t been determined, but CCMP Capital will likely seek to raise a fund of a similar size.

JPMorgan, which committed just under a quarter of the predecessor fund, cannot commit to Fund III from its own balance sheet because of the Volcker Rule in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. (However, it can channel money through funds of funds and other third-party asset management businesses.) To help diversify its investor base, CCMP executives over the last few years have been building relationships with sovereign wealth funds in Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East.

The firm, which used Credit Suisse to raise the prior fund, is currently evaluating placement agents, our sources said.

Formerly known as J.P. Morgan Partners and before that Chase Capital Partners, CCMP Capital spun out of the bank in 2006. The firm sponsors growth equity and buyouts in the consumer and retail, industrial, energy and health care sectors. Led by CEO Stephen Murray, who joined the firm in 1989 after working as a vice president in the mid-market lending division of Manufacturers Hanover, the firm has about 18 investment professionals as well as several executive advisers and associates.

CCMP Capital has been very active in recent months. In July, it took Francesca’s Holdings Corp. public, with the retailer of apparel, jewelry and accessories raising $170 million after pricing its shares above the their expected range. In June, it agreed to sell CareMore Medical Group Inc., a provider of managed health care plans the firm bought in 2006, while in May it agreed to buy Medpace Inc., a provider of clinical research services for the pharmaceutical industry, for a reported $500 million.