Paul Capital ro raise $100M for co-investments

Paul Capital Partners, a San Francisco-based fund of funds manager founded in 1991, next year plans to launch a $100 million mid-market co-investment vehicle that targets buyout and growth equity opportunities, according to a source close to the company.

The new fund will be managed from New York by two investing professionals who joined the company earlier this year: Managing Director Dana O’Brien, who previously spent 22 years at Cornerstone Equity Investors and its predecessor, Prudential Equity Investors; and Principal Dan Townsend, who spent nine years at GE Asset Management as a vice president in its International Private Equity Group.

O’Brien and Townsend did not respond to requests for comment.

The move to launch a co-investment vehicle comes amid a busy time for the firm, which raised 10 funds between 1991 and 2006 but kicked its fund-raising activity into overdrive earlier this year. Paul Capital is currently in the market with two funds, according to filings with the Securities and Exchangce Commission. One fund, which is targeting $650 million, is Paul Capital’s third vehicle dedicated to acquire health care royalty interests. The firm raised $657 million for the previous health care fund in 2003.

The firm also is marketing Paul Capital Partners IX, a $200 million fund to invest in secondaries worldwide, another of the firm’s specialties. The firm raised about $200 million for Paul Capital Partners VIII and a sidecar fund in 2004, according to Thomson Financial (publisher of PE Week).

With commitments from limited partners such as the Ohio Public Employees’ Retirement System, General Global Private Equity and BP Trustees Pension Ltd., Paul Capital this fall closed Paul Capital Top Tier Investments IV, a $218 million fund to back U.S. venture capital funds, mostly through primary fund commitments.

Among the venture firms that Paul Capital has backed is Shasta Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., which closed a second, $250 million, fund last month.