Linden Sees Finish Line Ahead For Fund II

Linden LLC has raised $200 million so far for its second fund earmarked for North American health care and life sciences companies, a source familiar with the fundraising effort told Buyouts. The firm also has likely secured commitments that would get it to its target of $300 million, our source said. The fund’s hard cap is $350 million.

Park Hill Group, the New York-based placement agency owned by The Blackstone Group, is helping the firm raise the fund, which executives at Linden hope to wrap up by the end of the first quarter. Should the Chicago-based buyout shop reach its target, it would mark a healthy increase in size from its $200 million debut fund, Linden Capital Partners LP, which closed in 2006. That fund has yielded one exit, the April 2008 sale of oral-care products company Ranir LLC, which netted 10x the firm’s investment in less than three years, as previously reported in Buyouts.

Investors in Linden’s first fund included funds-of-funds manager Parish Capital Advisors, as well as Chicago buyout firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC.

Linden participates in a broad range of deal sizes, from $10 million to $2 billion. It invests in U.S. and Canada-based health care and life sciences companies in such niche markets as animal health products, health care services, hospital products and life science equipment. The firm’s six-company portfolio includes BarrierSafe Solutions International, a Reno-based company that develops, markets and distributes disposable gloves for use in the food service, health care and industrial markets; Behavioral Centers of America, a Nashville-based company that provides psychiatric health care; and Corpak MedSystems, a Wheeling, Ill.-based maker of medical devices used to treat critically ill patients.

The firm was founded in 2002 by former professionals from First Chicago Equity Capital. Its partners include Anthony Davis, Eric Larson and Brian Miller. Linden has a total of eight investment professionals, as well as 12 operating partners that help portfolio companies and evaluate potential acquisition targets.