Fund briefs, April 30, 2007

GS gets bragging rights with $20B fund

Goldman Sachs

may not have Henry Kravis’ respect, but it does have something else that Kravis covets: The largest private equity fund ever raised.

The Wall Street titan last week announced that it has closed its sixth GS Capital Partners fund with $20 billion in capital commitments, which easily tops the $18.1 billion that The Blackstone Group had raised through its IPO last month.

Goldman Sachs has already begun spearheading big buyouts. Last year, for example, GS Capital Partners led a group of investors in two management-backed deals: the $22 billion LBO of pipeline operator Kinder Morgan and in the $8.3 billion take-private of Aramark Inc.

To assemble fund VI, Goldman Sachs tapped $9 billion of its own capital, including contributions from its employees. The remaining $11 billion in commitments came from institutional investors. Goldman Sachs did not name any of its limited partners, but previous investors have included the New York State Common Retirement Fund, Hamilton Lane, Invesco Private Capital and TIAA-CREF.

The new fund more than doubles the size of Goldman Sachs’s vintage 2005, $8.5 billion fund, which is fully invested, according to the firm. —PE Week staff

To see the full story about Goldman Sachs’ fund-raising effort, check out the latest issue of Buyouts.



GSO Capital launches fund aimed at buyouts

A new fund launched by GSO Capital Partners will allow the debt-specializing hedge fund to expand its investments in the buyout business. GSO Capital Opportunities Fund, which has a $750 million target, will allow the hedge fund to take fuller advantage of the kinds of illiquid investments that are normally more difficult for hedge funds. “They are effectively raising a fund that can deal with lock-up situations better,” says a source familiar with the firm’s fund-raising.

GSO Capital Partners was formed in 2004 by Bennett Goodman, the former high-yield debt chief at Credit Suisse, and colleagues Albert Smith and Douglas Ostrover. The trio launched their investment firm with a $1.5 billion fund that closed in July 2005. —Jeremy Harrell

To see the full story about Goldman Sachs’ fund-raising effort, check out the latest issue of Buyouts.

New Path raises $22M

New Path Ventures

closed $22 million of a Series C financing round. The venture firm, which is run by Vinod Dham and Tushar Dave, raises its investment dollars in traunches the same way that a startup might raise venture capital. New Path’s Series C round, which was targeted at $25 million, is smaller than the $65 million it targeted for its Series A in February 2003.

The firm started life as Leapfrog Accelerator in 2002 with backing from ChrysCapital Management Cos. and New Enterprise Associates. Limited partners in the firm’s Series C traunche include NEA, International Finance Corp. and Siguler Guff BRIC Opportunities Fund.

Dham declined to comment about his continued relation with New Path.

New Path’s fund-raising comes as Dham recently participated in the formation of IndoUS Ventures, an early stage venture firm targeting companies with Indian technologies, Indian markets, or a presence in India, and which is also backed by NEA. That firm has closed $175 million for its first fund, as PE Week reported on April 9. —Alexander Haislip

CapitalSouth launches fund

CapitalSouth Partners

is launching a $300 million private-equity fund, nearly a third of which will focus on taking majority ownership stakes in small companies, the firm told the Charlotte Business Journal.

The Charlotte, N.C. -based firm also added five investment professionals, three of whom will scout deals for the fund from new offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Louisville, Ky.

CapitalSouth, launched in 1998, manages two funds that total $185 million. The firm traditionally invests about $5 million in small companies with annual earnings of $2 million to $10 million.

The new fund will consist of $125 million from the Small Business Administration’s SBIC program and $100 million raised in private capital, most of it from community and regional banks that invested in the previous two funds.

President Joe Alala and other investors at CapitalSouth have also put in more than $4 million in fund III, with Alala accounting for about $2 million. —PE Week staff