Searchlight targets $750 mln for debut non-control fund

Searchlight Capital, which closed its second flagship pool on more than $1.9 billion in 2015, is in market with its debut non-control fund targeting $750 million, three people with knowledge of the firm told Buyouts.

Searchlight Opportunities Fund has raised at least $325 million, according to a Form D filing from December.

The big difference between the Opportunities fund and Searchlight’s flagship vehicles is the non-control aspect. This will give the firm flexibility to pursue investments that fall outside the remit of the main funds, sources said.

The firm, led by Eric Zinterhofer, Oliver Haarmann and Erol Uzumeri, recently hired Albert Shin as a partner to work on the Opportunities fund. Shin was formerly head of North American investments at SVPGlobal, which he left last year.

Shin joins Partner Tom Hendrick, who joined Searchlight last year, also from SVPGlobal, to work on the new fund. (SVPGlobal promoted David Geenberg and Daniel Han as co-heads of the North American investment team in early 2016, an SVPGlobal spokesman said.)

Searchlight closed its second fund after raising its $1.8 billion cap to accommodate additional limited partners. The firm closed its debut flagship vehicle on $864 million in 2012.

Zinterhofer, former co-head of media and telecom at Apollo Global; Haarmann, former partner at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts; and Uzumeri, who formerly led PE at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, formed Searchlight in 2010.

Searchlight joins several other firms that have raised smaller funds for expanded focus, including Clearlake Capital, which launched fundraising on its debut non-control vehicle, Clearlake Opportunity Partners, in 2015. That fund closed on $543 million last year, according to a source with knowledge of the process. Harvest Partners launched its first non-control fund in 2014, targeting $400 million.

Action Item: Clearlake’s Form ADV: http://bit.ly/2oZLvOX

Correction: A prior version of this report misspelled David Geenberg’s name. The report has been updated.

Arrows stick in a target with a smiley icon during the warmup for the men’s individual archery competition at the 1st European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, on June 22 , 2015. Photo courtesy Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach