Oil service specialist Intervale closes Fund III at $495 mln in five months

The firm, which has offices in Cambridge, Mass, and Houston, Texas, expects to deploy Intervale Capital Fund III with equity investments that will range from $50 million to $75 million for each platform over time. Initial equity checks may be less than $5 million.

The firm expects to invest in new deals opportunistically in 2014, with more exits to come in 2015. In 2013, the firm made six platform investments from Fund II, which raised $376 million in 2012.

Intervale will continue its focus on supporting proven management teams in launching new companies or finding smaller firms for directly-negotiated sales.

 “If you take those two sources of deals, we see the market as (as) good as it’s ever been,” Charles Cherington, managing partner of the firm, told Buyouts. “When we buy companies, almost everything we do, either a platform or an add-on, is a negotiated deal on a sole-source basis without intermediaries. With a few exceptions, that’s our preferred route.”

Two deals from Fund I that drove performance of the firm were Ulterra, sold to Esco, a mining equipment manufacturing company, and Casedhole Solutions, a well completion service company, sold to C&J Energy Services. Both deals took place in 2012 and were “exceptional” in terms of returns, Cherington said. The combined deals paid back most of the LP capital called for Fund I, but only took up 20 percent of the capital in the fund.

The firm may add a handful of people in 2014 and 2015 to boost its portfolio services offerings. Additions may include junior associates and  support staff to complement its current crop of 21 employees, he said.

Including $281 million from Fund I, Intervale Capital has now raised $1.2 billion in three private equity pools since 2006.

Intervale invests exclusively in middle-market oilfield services and manufacturing companies and related technologies, the firm said.