Fremont Partners rebrands

Mid-market buyout group Fremont Partners has jettisoned its name in favor of Calera Capital as it lays the groundwork for its fourth fund.

The firm is sticking with its strategy, investors and office space, but has diversified its limited partner base away from the Fremont Group, which was the sponsor and sole LP for the firm’s first fund says Managing Partner Mark Williamson.

“They have explained to us that they are increasing the liquidity and diversification in their portfolio and, therefore, illiquid investments of significant size such as ours do not appear to be an area of emphasis for them,” Williamson says of the Fremont Group.

Fremont Group, which footed $200 million for Fremont Partners first fund in 1991, owned nearly a fifth of the $920 million Fremont Partners III, Williamson says. “With a diversified group of high quality investors, the future of the firm is not dependent upon the strategy of any one investor” Williamson says.

The partners picked the name Calera, which is a type of limestone found in northern California, for its symbolism as a building material Williamson says.

The firm has built some successes over the past several years. It took Kinetic Concepts (NYSE: KCI) private for $895 million in 1997. The company had a $621 million IPO in February 2004 that netted Calera six times its investment, Williamson says.

It took Juno Lighting private in June 1999 in a deal worth $326 million. The firm sold the company, for nearly $620 million in 2005 in a deal that netted Calera three times its investment, Williamson says.