RCP Advisors Beats Target; Fund VIII At $268M

Firm: RCP Advisors LLC

Fund: RCP Fund VIII LP

Target: $250 million

Amount Raised: $267.7 million

Placement Agent: PTP Securities LLC

“We’re sticking with our strategy since inception,” Jeff Gehl, managing principal of Chicago-based RCP Advisors, told Buyouts. The RCP Advisors fund series dates back to its debut fund, RCP I, in 2002.

The fundraising effort for RCP Fund VIII LP topped the average level of about $250 million for the fund series at a time when RCP Advisors was also in the market for its RCP Secondary Opportunity Fund II LP.

RCP Fund VIII LP drew participation from 202 investors, with a minimum investment of $500,000 and a date of first sale listed as Feb. 10, 2012, according to the fund’s Form D filing.

RCP Fund VIII comes two years after the vintage 2011 RCP Fund VII LP raised $300 million, with limited partner participation from the Chicago Policemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund, Florida State Board of Administration, Indiana University Foundation, Tredje AP-fonden and UCLA Foundation.

Marking a busy summer for the Chicago-based private equity firm, RCP Advisors closed its Secondary Opportunity Fund II on July 31 with $425 million, surpassing its $300 million target.

RCP Advisors manages more than $3 billion in its family of co-investment funds, funds-of-funds and secondary funds, all focused on lower mid-market buyouts.

In its core buyout strategy, RCP Advisors signs on with private equity funds with about $100 million to $1 billion in committed capital. It targets companies with about $25 million to $250 million in enterprise value.

Florida State Board of Administration earned an IRR of 5.8 percent on the vintage 2007 RCP Fund V LP and an IRR of 8.0 percent for its investment the vintage 2006 RCP Fund IV, both as of Dec. 31, 2012, according to data compiled by Buyouts.

“Funds-of-funds are designed to bring access, careful selection, and diversification to investors which may otherwise find it difficult to assemble such a portfolio on their own,” RCP Advisors said on its website. “RCP’s skills are even more differentiated because [our] niche is very large, relatively unknown, and relationship-oriented.”

The firm’s investment committee includes managing principals Thomas Danis Jr., Charles Huebner, Jon Madorsky and William “Fritz” Souder, as well as David McCoy, principal and portfolio manager, and Gehl.

RCP Advisors takes the first three letters of its name from Reserve Capital Partners, its prior name until shortly after the launch of the firm.

(Correction: RCP Advisors has finished raising a fund of funds. It is not a buyout fund, as stated in the original version of this story.)