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  • Investment draws down vintage 2007 debut fund
  • Accounting software provider may go public in the future
  • Deal attracted interest from several buyout firms

Before the BlackLine Systems transaction, the $1.1 billion Silver Lake Sumeru Fund LP was already about 77 percent drawn down as of year-end, based on disclosures from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a limited partner in the fund. Typically, private equity firms start raising a new fund after an existing vehicle is about 70 percent drawn down. Buyouts reported last year that Silver Lake Sumeru may raise about $1 billion in its second fund.

A spokeswoman for Silver Lake Sumeru declined to comment.

Headed by Chief Executive Officer Therese Tucker, 175-employee BlackLine Systems sells subscription-based software to help streamline accounting requirements under Sarbanes-Oxley rules for financial closings and other disclosures. Clients of the Woodland Hills, Calif.-based company include AT&T, Boeing, Costco, Dominion Resources and many others. Tucker will retain an equity stake in BlackLine Systems and remain as CEO. Silver Lake also brought in ICONIQ Capital as an investor. The deal is expected to close in August.

BlackLine Systems may consider an initial public offering in the future, but it first opted to hire banker Evercore Partners Inc to find a private equity backer to help it grow. The company narrowed the choice down to about six firms and then opted for Silver Lake Sumeru, according to a person familiar with the deal.

In a prepared statement, Silver Lake Sumeru Managing Director Hollie Moore Haynes said the deal offers an “enormous opportunity” to bring transaction analytics and workflow technology to the financial process management business.

CalPERS committed $220 million to Silver Lake Sumeru Fund LP in 2007 and contributed $170.3 million as of Dec. 31, 2012, according to the pension system’s website. CalPERS’s investment in the fund earned the pension system an internal rate of return of 8.5 percent.

Exits from Silver Lake Sumeru include the sale of i2 Ltd to IBM two years ago and the sales of Power-One and Smart Storage Systems. Acquisitions from the fund included a minority stake in MedSeek and Velocity Technology Solutions.

Silver Lake Sumeru is a unit of Silver Lake, which is working with Michael Dell to take Dell Inc private for about $25 billion.

Silver Lake Sumeru typically makes equity investments of $25 million to $150 million in technology companies with values ranging from $50 million to $500 million. The firm is led by Founding Managing Partner Ajay Shah and Founding Managing Directors John Brennan, Haynes, Paul Mercadante and Kyle Ryland.