GE Capital Launches Euro 700M Vehicle –

If the trend of U.S.-based groups raising European private equity vehicles continues, general partners will need a shoe horn to squeeze all of the U.S. capital raised into the Continent.

The most recent entrant into the fray is GE Capital Partners, which last month began circulating offering documents for a new European buyout fund that features a target of euro 700 million ($742 million), according to a gatekeeper familiar with the effort.

The European effort will target deal sizes of between euro 20 million and euro 100 million, the source said, and will focus on manufacturing, industrial and communications companies in Western and Central Europe. Terms of the fund were not available.

The effort will be managed by Everett Smith, a managing director in GE Capital’s structured finance group, and Brandon Blaylock, also a managing director in structured finance, according to the source. Sharon Pipe, a London-based managing director in GE Capital’s Equity Capital Group International also will help to raise and manage the fund, the gatekeeper said.

Mr. Smith declined to comment on the fund, as did a GE Capital spokesperson. Mr. Blaylock and Ms. Pipe could not be contacted by press time. Additional information was not available at press time.