GenSpring Launches Fund Of Funds, Direct Fund

GenSpring Family Offices, until September known as Asset Management Advisors, is expected before year-end to begin raising money from its network of wealthy families for two new vehicles, a fund of funds and a direct equity fund.

The vehicles are slated to have a combined target of $150 million, according to Ted Mayden, who heads GenSpring’s private equity investment team. The two new funds had not been named as of press time, but will be the first ones marketed under the GenSpring shingle.

The fund of funds would be earmarked for large buyout funds, lower middle-market LBO shops and distressed-oriented vehicles. “As our pool of capital grows we’ll be getting more involved in things like mezzanine, venture and emerging markets,” said Mayden, referring to future funds-of-funds deployment. The direct equity fund would allow GenSpring families to invest either alongside other equity sponsors or as the sole institutional equity in a growth capital investment, he added.

Mayden joined the firm earlier this year, when he and the rest of the fund-of-funds team from SunTrust Equity Partners, which managed money for SunTrust Banks Inc., left the bank to form AMA’s first dedicated private equity group. In September, the firm closed on a combined $150 million for AMA Private Equity Fund of Funds 2007 and AMA Private Equity Direct Fund 2007. Of that $150 million, between 60 percent and 70 percent is expected to be deployed in buyouts, half of which will be done through co-investments.

Founded in 1989, Palm Beach, Fla.-based GenSpring invests on behalf of more than 420 families and has more than $12 billion in assets under management, according to its Web site.—J.P.