OpenGate expected to launch next fund in quick turnaround

OpenGate Capital is talking to limited partners about launching its next flagship, which could target up to $850 million, sources told Buyouts.

Emerging managers like OpenGate are seeking reception with limited partners, who generally have been happy to stick with their established relationships in uncertain markets. Other emerging managers in the market include Guidepost Growth Equity, Princeton Equity Group and Diversis Capital.

OpenGate is expected to launch Fund III later this year, one of the sources, an LP who has heard the pitch, said.

The firm will roll into fundraising quicker than some people expected, the source said. OpenGate closed Fund II on $585 million in 2019, and its debut fund on $305 million in 2016.

OpenGate focuses on corporate carveouts and turnarounds in industrial, technology, consumer and business services sectors. In May, the firm carved out Solvay’s North American and European amphoteric surfactant business and renamed it Verdant Specialty Solutions. The firm in April acquired Kongsberg Precision Cutting Systems from Esko.

Andrew Nikou, managing partner and CEO, formed OpenGate in 2005 after working at Platinum Equity. The firm operated deal-by-deal in the years before raising its first institutional fund.

Last year, long-time partner Sebastien Kiekert Le Moult left the firm in what was described as an amicable break. Le Moult had been listed as an indirect owner of OpenGate’s management company through an entity called Syntagma Capital, of which Le Moult was listed as the sole shareholder, according to OpenGate’s 2020 Form ADV. In the firm’s latest Form ADV as of March, Le Moult was no longer listed among the owners of the management company.

Le Moult primarily focused on M&A transactions in Europe as part of the firm’s Paris-based team led by Julien Lagrèze, a partner and head of Europe since 2007, Buyouts previously reported.