Market wrap up: In the wake of financial crisis, fund-raising climbs

The pace of fund-raising was slow a week after the financial turmoil on Wall Street, but there was some fund-raising activity that boosted the total capital commitments obtained so far this year to $223.6 billion.

Trivest Partners closed Trivest Fund IV at $325 million. The Miami-based firm deals primarily with founder or family owned businesses in the United State and Canada. The fund has a target of $300 million.

In addition, some firms are launching new vehicles. AIG Highstar Capital plans to raise another fund AIG Highstar Capital IV that will target infrastructure investments. The proposed fund will seek between $3 billion to $5 billion in capital commitments. Fund III closed at $3.5 billion in October 2007.

FdG Associates also plans to raise its third fund called FdG Capital Partners III in the fourth quarter. The firm makes investments in consumer products, manufacturing and logistic companies. Its target for the fund is $450 million.

Deal activity slows

The number and size of the LBO transactions during the past week was also tepid.

There were nine transactions and the five with disclosed values totaled only $85.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters (publisher PE Week). The year-to-date deal flow inched up to about $106.9 billion.

The biggest deal of the period was Orchard Brands’ acquisition of Crosstown Traders Inc., a retailer of women’s apparel, from Charming Shoppes Inc. for $35 million. Orchard Brands is owned Golden Gate Capital.

Another deal of note in the last week was the sale of ProxyMed Inc.

Two bidders reportedly were competing to buy ProxyMed, a Fort Lauderdale-based health care information technology company that electronically links physicians, pharmacies and managed care organizations through its on-line computer network. The company had filed for bankruptcy and was expected to sell for about $11 million.

Marlin Equity Partners-owned MHC Acquisition Corp. was selected as the winning bidder over the reported rival bidder private equity-owned Maple Acquisition Co.

The bidding war helped push the sale price of ProxyMed to nearly $25 million. —Eamon Beltran