Lovell Minnick above target for third fund

Lovell Minnick Partners has closed on $375 million to date for its third buyout fund, Lovell Minnick Equity Partners III, says a source familiar with the firm’s fund-raising effort. The El Segundo, Calif.-based shop plans to wrap up the fund by January at the latest, the source says.

The firm raised $220 million in commitments for its second fund, which closed in 2006.

In February, PE Week reported that firm executives decided to keep the fund open after a warm response from investors helped it cruise past its $350 million target. Credit Suisse is acting as placement agent for the fund, which has attracted close to 20 institutional investors, including WP Global Partners Inc. and RCP Advisors.

Lovell Minnick CEO Jeff Lovell, who co-founded the firm with James Minnick in 1999, declined to comment.

Lovell Minnick invests $10 million to $40 million of equity in financial services companies, and typically holds on to its investments for about five years.

In May, the firm sold Berkeley Capital Management’s Delta Asset Management division to Marshall & Ilsley Corp. for an undisclosed amount.

As for deal flow, it’s been slow going. Lovell Minnick has yet to make a platform acquisition in 2009 and made only one in 2008, buying Mercer Advisors Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company that provides financial management for dental and medical professionals, for an undisclosed amount. —Bernard Vaughan