H.I.G. spinout Gemspring targets $300 mln for debut fund

Gemspring Capital plans to raise as much as $300 million for its debut buyout fund about a year after the firm launched under a veteran of H.I.G. Capital, according to a filing.

The Westport, Connecticut, firm said it didn’t yet have a date of first sale for the fund, which lists Bret Wiener as an executive officer, the filing shows.

Wiener, managing partner, founded Gemspring in 2015 after 11 years at H.I.G. Capital, including seven as managing director, on the firm’s lower-middle-market buyout strategy. He also worked in Microsoft’s corporate strategy group.

Wiener did not return a phone call or email from Buyouts.

In August, the firm named Thomas Zanios managing director. He was previously at Odyssey Investment Partners for nine years. The firm lists one other managing director, Malcolm Appelbaum, who previously served as an independent operating partner for H.I.G. Capital.

In December, the firm named Bennett Grill vice president. Grill worked at Ipreo, a portfolio company of Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs, and at Blue Wolf Capital.

Gemspring focuses on equity and structured-equity investments in lower-middle-market companies with as much as $250 million of revenue in business services, industrial services, distribution and logistics, healthcare services, specialty manufacturing and media, technology and software.

Action Item: Contact Gemspring: www.gemspring.com/contact-1/

A colored gemstone at Gubelin Gem Lab headquarters in Luzern, Switzerland, on May 11, 2016. Photo courtesy Reuters/Ruben Sprich