Firms & Funds

Accel Partners plans to open an office New York City. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based venture capital and growth equity firm already has offices in Bangalore, Beijing, London, New Delhi, and Shanghai. Accel’s New York office will be in the Union Square South area, at 11th & Broadway. The firm has made more than 15 investments in companies in the New York City area over the past three years, and plans to continue its active New York City-based investment pace.

Apollo Investment Corp. plans to raise $150 million through a private placement of convertible notes and the firm plans to use the capital to fund investments and repay debt, Reuters reported. Apollo Investments will sell senior unsecured convertible notes due 2016. Initial purchasers of these notes will have an option to purchase up to $22.5 million more of the notes’s principal.

Ares Capital Corp.’s indirect subsidiary, Ares Capital CP Funding LLC, extended its $400 million revolving funding facility to Jan. 18, 2016, from Jan. 22, 2013. Wells Fargo Bank NA provided the facility, which contains a three-year reinvestment period until Jan. 18, 2014, followed by a two year amortization period. The reinvestment period and final maturity may be extended two times for one year periods if mutually agreed upon by the parties. Pricing on the facility remains unchanged and the currently effective LIBOR spread under is 2.75 percent.

Bank Street Holdings, the parent company of Bank Street Group, formed Bank Street Capital Partners. The new group will make growth investments, most notably in the communications, media and technology sectors. Ted Mocarski was hired to lead the group. Mocarski was a co-founder and managing director of Key Venture Partners.

Clairvue Capital Partners led a $30 million preferred equity offering of Phillips Edison Shopping Center Fund III, an investment fund managed by Phillips Edison & Co. Clairvue contributed $25 million of the investment. An entity controlled by Phillips Edison contributed the rest. Phillips Edison is a real estate investment fund manager and operator. It has a portfolio of more than 25 million square feet of shopping centers in the U.S. Clairvue is a San Francisco-based real estate private equity firm.

GTCR Golder Rauner LLC of Chicago entered a partnership with David Minella to form Aligned Asset Managers LLC. AAM, based in Stamford, Conn., will build a multi-strategy asset management platform through substantial equity investments in firms across alternative and traditional asset classes. GTCR plans to invest up to $200 million of equity capital to support the strategy. Minella will serve as CEO of AAM.

H.I.G. Capital LLC of Miami completed the recapitalization of Progressive Logistics Services LLC. Terms were not disclosed. The existing management team of Progressive Logistics, which is led by CEO Tom Caudell and COO Mike Adams, will continue to manage the company, an outsourced workforce management service.

Benjamin W. Hulburt and Christopher K. Hulburt formed Eclipse Resources I LP, which is an independent oil and natural gas company based in State College, Pa. The new group is being formed with EnCap Investments LP. EnCap and Eclipse Resources’ management are committing $150 million to Eclipse Resources I LP. The Hulberts are former senior executive officers of Rex Energy Corp. Eclipse Resources will acquire, explore and develop unconventional oil and natural gas properties in the Appalachian Basin.

Moelis & Co., a New York-based investment bank, has opened an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Augusto Sasso, who is head of MENA Investment Banking, will lead the office, which is to provide financial advisory and capital raising services to clients in the Middle East and North African markets.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management held the final close of its first dedicated corporate mezzanine fund. Morgan Stanley Credit Partners LP ended its fundraising drive with $956 million in capital commitments.

PineBridge Investments of New York launched PineBridge Merger Arbitrage Fund (a UCITS III fund). The vehicle will invest in publicly announced merger and acquisition transactions. Managing Director Lan Cai will manage the fund.

Rubenstein Partners closed four deals in the fourth quarter, marking the first new investment by Rubenstein Properties Fund LP in nearly four years. The four transactions represent an initial equity investment of about $70 million, with anticipated follow-on equity investments of $30 million in these deals. Rubenstein Partners is a Philadelphia-based private equity firm providing real estate investment management and advisory services.

Senior Secured Loan Program, which is managed by Ares Capital and an affiliate of GE Capital, increased the total available capital in the program to $5.1 billion from $3.6 billion. The amount of capital GE Capital and its affiliate will make available rose to $4.125 billion from $3.075 billion. The funds Ares Capital will make available rose to $975 million from $525 million. In addition, the program will now be allowed to hold loans in a principal amount up to $300 million.

One of TPG Capital’s largest funds is under par, Reuters reported, citing an article in the Financial Times. At the end of 2010, TPG’s $17.4 billion fund V was worth less than 100 cents on the dollar. According to the Financial Times, TPG has told investors that the fund was worth about 80 cents on the dollar.