Ohio Shop Speeds Past Halfway Mark

Firm: Linsalata Capital Partners

Fund: Linsalata Capital Partners VI LP

Target: $425 million

Linsalata Capital Partners, a mid-west buyout shop now well into its third decade, was expecting to hold a first close on approximately $290 million for its sixth fund in late July, a senior executive familiar with the fundraising effort told Buyouts.

The closing would mean the Mayfield Heights, Oh.-based buyout shop is well on its way to its target of $425 million for the fund, Linsalata Capital Partners VI LP. The firm raised an identical amount for its previous fund, Linsalata Capital Partners V LP, in 2005.

Most of the commitments so far are from groups that have invested in Linsalata Capital’s previous funds, the source said. 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, Linsalata Capital has made more than 85 acquisitions.

A generalist investor, the firm has taken advantage of opportunities in business services, food service equipment, pet products and services, among many others. In its most recent platform acquisition, in February, the firm made its first foray into 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.

Linsalata Capital typically invests $10 million to $50 million of equity in companies generating EBITDA between $7 million and $50 million.

The other Senior Managing Directors 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.