Ill. Shop Makes Short Work Of Fund II Raise

Firm: Industrial Opportunity Partners

Fund: Industrial Opportunity Partners II LP

Target: $250 million, $275 million hard cap

Placement Agent: Park Hill Group

Industrial Opportunity Partners is planning to wrap up fundraising on its second fund in the coming weeks, a source familiar with the firm’s fundraising process told Buyouts.

The Evanston, Ill.-based buyout shop expects to hit its hard cap of $275 million, the source said. The firm’s target for the fund, Industrial Opportunity Partners II LP, is $250 million. Industrial Opportunity Partners expects to have the fund almost totally raised by March 28, though it is waiting on one more commitment from a final investor, which is expected to be finalized the following week.

Park Hill Group LLC, the placement agency owned by The Blackstone Group, is helping the firm raise the fund. Park Hill also helped the firm with its debut fund, which collected $185 million in commitments in 2007.

It’s been a fairly brisk fundraising campaign for the firm, which launched the fund in the middle to latter part of the fourth quarter of last year. The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board was among investors in Fund I.

Industrial Opportunity Partners typically invests $5 million to $30 million in its deals, targeting North American companies in the industrial manufacturing and distribution sectors, as well as automotive components, building products, farming and agricultural equipment, health care and food products. Target companies typically generate between $30 million and $350 million in revenue.

Among the firm’s recent deals were its December sale of FAS Controls Inc., a Shelby, N.C.-based manufacturer of switches, circuit breakers, sensors and other components for transportation equipment manufacturers, to Kendrion NV. That same month, the firm also bought Toledo Molding & Die Inc., a Toledo, Ohio-based supplier of automotive parts and equipment, for an undisclosed amount.