Quadrangle Seals Off Debut Mega Fund –

Showing that the fund-raising market is not just open to brand name funds, the new media and communications specialist Quadrangle Group LLC recently held a final close on $1.08 billion for its debut fund, Quadrangle Capital Partners LP. The Monument Group served as placement agent for the fund.

“The final closing of our fund marks an important milestone for Quadrangle Group,” said a source close to the firm. “We are extremely pleased to have raised capital in excess of our $1 billion target,” he said.

Quadrangle Capital Partners LP, which held a first close of $400 million last May, attracted a mixture of LPs consisting of leading executives in the industry, major financial institutions, pension funds and other institutional endowments. The founding partners were David Tanner, Steven Rattner, Peter Ezersky and Joshua Stein, who also contributed a significant amount of capital to the fund.

“It was a great mix of LPs and was very much what we hoped to achieve,” said the source. “The fact that they have confidence in us and thought that our relationships and experience differentiated us was very gratifying,” he said.

The fund will look to invest in 20 companies ranging from traditional subscription- and advertising- based media companies, which provide an opportunity for leverage, to investing in higher growth communications companies where the capital structure may not support that much leverage especially in today’s market, said the source.

So far, Quadrangle has already invested $110 million in three companies including: Access Spectrum LLC, a provider of spectrum to commercial wireless users; Pathfire Inc., a maker of platform for digital-media management; and Publishing Group of America Inc., a publisher of a weekly magazine insert for community newspapers. “We continue to believe that the media and communications industry not only offers some of the best investment prospects today, but will also grow faster than the economy as a whole over the next five to 10 years,” said the source. “With our fund closed, we are even more confident that we are well positioned to find and invest in unique business opportunities with significant growth prospects in the sector.”