Riverside Seeks Help Raising Three Funds

The Riverside Company is in talks with a single placement agent to help it raise close to $2 billion across three funds next year, a source familiar with the firm’s plans told Buyouts.

It would be the first time in the lower mid-market buyout firm’s almost 24-year history that it employed a placement agent to help it raise a fund, the source said.

Riverside expects to seek roughly $100 million for its next Asia-focused fund, Riverside Asia Fund II; roughly $1 billion for its next flagship global buyout fund, Riverside Capital Appreciation Fund VI; and roughly $600 million its next Europe-focused fund, Riverside Europe Fund V, the source said.

The firm is hoping to have all of the funds raised by the end of 2012 or early 2013, the source said. These funds come on top of the $137 million in commitments the firm raised for the microcap fund it closed in September (which included $150 million in Small Business Administration funding, bringing its total to $287 million).

Altogether, these funds will dramatically increase Riverside’s assets under management. The firm currently has about $3.2 billion assets under management.

The source said the firm is interested in a employing placement agent given the complexity of trying to raise three funds simultaneously across three continents while also concentrating on investing. The firm wanted “one group that would know the firm well enough across all geographies” to be able to handle all three funds.

Riverside, with 20 offices around the world, targets companies across a variety of sectors with enterprise values of less than $200 million. In North America it typically seeks companies with EBITDA of $5 million to $20 million; in Asia, it seeks companies generating less than $10 million in EBITDA; and in Europe, it seeks companies generating EBITDA of between €3 million and €20 million ($4 million and $27 million).