Mezz Shop Raises Almost $60M For Third Fund

Centerfield Capital Partners has raised $59.85 million from 23 investors so far for its third fund, according to a recent regulatory filing.

It unclear how much the Indianapolis-based firm is seeking to raise for the fund, Centerfield Capital Partners III LP.

Centerfield Capital provides subordinated debt and equity to lower mid-market companies for acquisitions, growth financings, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures and other types of transactions. The firm currently manages approximately $200 million, according to its Web site. Centerfield Capital raised $130 million for its previous fund in 2006, according to Capital IQ.

Fundraising for mezzanine funds has been strong, despite heightened competition from so-called unitranche lenders, which provide borrowers with a single, blended loan, Buyouts reported in its June 6 edition. Mezzanine funds have raised at least $4.4 billion this year, up 26.4 percent from the same period last year.

Centerfield Capital’s current portfolio includes A&D Environmental Services, a High Point, N.C.-based provider of environmental waste cleaning and removal services to companies based in the southeastern U.S.; Backyard Products LLC, a Monroe, Mich.-based designer, manufacturer and marketer of read-to-assemble outdoor structures; and Hunter’s Specialties, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based manufacturer of hunting accessories.

Tom Hiatt, a former partner in two early stage venture partnerships who also founded a company called Sungene Technologies Corp., which employed molecular and cell biology to modify major field crops; and Scott Lutzke, who previously established the corporate finance group for NBD Bank in Indiana, founded Centerfield Capital in 1998. The firm has a staff of seven.

Lutzke did not return calls seeking comment.