Ohio Shop Close To Wrapping Fund VI

Linsalata Capital Partners has held an additional close on its sixth buyout fund, bringing its total commitments to $413 million, a senior executive familiar with the fundraising effort told Buyouts.

The Mayfield Heights, Ohio-based buyout shop is thus fast approaching its target of $425 million for the fund, Linsalata Capital Partners VI LP. Firm executives hope to wrap the fundraising effort early this year, though they have until mid-July to finish, the source said.

The firm raised an identical amount for its previous fund, Linsalata Capital Partners V LP, in 2005.

In August, Buyouts reported that most of the funds commitments were so far from groups that have invested in Linsalata Capital’s previous funds. Previous investors have included Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund and Yale University, according to the Dow Jones Directory of Alternative Investment Programs.

Frank Linsalata, a former CFO of Midland-Ross Corp., the Cleveland-based industrial firm that was bought by Forstmann Little & Co. in 1986, founded Linsalata Capital in 1984. Since then, the firm has made more than 85 deals, typically cutting equity checks of $10 million to $50 million in companies generating EBITDA between $7 million and $50 million.

Linsalata Capital has been particularly drawn to deals in business services, food service equipment, pet products and services, although it has invested in a variety of industries. Last February, the firm made its first investment in the health care sector with its buy of NeuroTherm Inc., a Wilmington, Mass.-based manufacturer of radio frequency generators and other products used in the field of interventional pain management, which was also Linsalata Capital’s most recent platform acquisition.

The two other senior managing directors at the firm are Eric Bacon, who held a series of operating positions with Allied-Signal in South Bend, Ind., and eventually became a consultant at McKinsey & Co. before joining Linsalata Capital in 1990; and Stephen Perry, who held a series of management positions at Midland-Ross prior to joining Linsalata Capital in 1998. The firm has about 12 investment professionals total.