The new fund is for the most part backed by limited partners that committed to Silver Lake’s large-market buyout funds. Aside from deal size, the two funds’ investment strategies are nearly identical. Whereas Silver Lake Sumeru invests $15 million to $150 million in deals of up to $500 million, Silver Lake invests $250 million to $300 million in deals valued between $800 million and $1 billion. Silver Lake’s investment size lends itself more to take-privates whereas Silver Lake Sumeru is suited to carve-outs and restructurings.
The funds have the capacity to co-invest alongside one another. That hasn’t happened yet, but the two teams have looked at several opportunities.
The new team hasn’t waited to get going. Silver Lake Sumeru announced two transactions in April and one in October. The latest and largest is a carve-out of ChoicePoint Inc.’s non-core government services business. In late April, Silver Lake Sumeru paid $185 million for i2, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based maker of software for public-sector law enforcement agents and investigators. —Erin Griffith
Turnaround shop nears close of inaugural fund
BlackEagle officials declined to comment.
The Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based shop held an initial close of about $130 million in June and a second close of $200 million in the first week of March.
In April 2005, three former Questor Management pros—Michael Madden, Garrett Kanehann and Jason Runco—founded the firm, previously known as Centurion Capital Partners. They were joined by Henry Watson, who founded the Caledonia Group, an advisory shop for the automotive and niche manufacturing industries.
The team began fund-raising in the second half of 2006. It originally planned on raising $300 million to $400 million, as previously reported in Buyouts, a PE Week affiliated publication.
So far the firm has completed two deals. In November 2006, it acquired Federal Broach & Machine Co., a Harrison, Mich.-based auto parts supplier. In November, it acquired Rockford Products, a Rockford, Ill.-based manufacturer of chassis and suspension components.
The firm seeks to invest between $5 million and $40 million in companies with enterprise values between $50 million and $200 million and minimum revenues of $50 million. It looks to make control investments in under-performing or troubled businesses, such as non-core subsidiaries of large companies, companies having trouble paying off debt, and bankrupt companies. —Bernard Vaughan
TowerBrook strives toward $2.75B
Contributing to that $760 million are recent commitments from the
TowerBrook Investors III is the firm’s second independent fund-raising effort. After raising and deploying one fund under the umbrella of Soros Private Equity Partners, the firm became an independent entity in 2005. Its first stand-alone fund was TowerBrook Investors II, a $1.3 billion pool closed in March 2006. Soros Private Equity committed at least $250 million into that fund. Its commitment to TowerBrook Capital Partners’s third effort is unclear.
Additional backers of prior TowerBrook Capital Partners funds include
Notably, the firm met success with its early stage investment in passenger airline Jet Blue Airways, and the turnaround of Swiss cable service provider Cablecom. This year, it has purchased luxury shoe designer Jimmy Choo and spirits and wine retailer Beverages & More. Both investments were from its second fund. —Erin Griffith
Flexpoint aims for $1.2B
Chicago-based
Flexpoint raised $225 million for its debut fund in 2005.
HarbourVest targets $2B
HarbourVest traditionally makes secondary deals out of both its Dover Street and general fund of funds vehicles, but LBO Wire reports that it plans to shift toward only doing secondaries out of Dover Street.
Paul Capital raises nearly $1.7B
French buyout firm
The firm targets European businesses in such sectors as services, capital goods and consumer goods.
PAI raised $3.5 billion for fund IV in 2005. Among its acquisitions are Kwik-Fit, United Biscuits, Monier and Yoplait.