Seidler holds first close

Middle market buyout specialist Seidler Equity Partners recently held a first close on its new fund, Seidler Equity Partners III, with $165 million.

The first close is already a leap over the sizes of the firm’s previous funds, and it promises to be larger still.

The fund is targeted at $200 million and the Los Angeles-based firm expects to wrap up fund-raising by mid-year, says firm founder Peter Seidler.

He says that the final close will likely exceed, albeit slightly, the $200 million mark.

The previous fund closed in 2002 with $120 million, and its inaugural fund in 2000 raised more than $55 million.

Seidler says that the firm’s limited partners include funds-of-funds, foundations and family offices, most of which were investors in the firm’s past two funds. He declined to name any of the firm’s LPs and said that the fund’s fee and carry structure were typical of mid-market buyout funds.

The firm generally takes controlling interest in lower middle-market companies in niche markets. It favors companies with sales between $15 million and $200 million and EBITDA between $4 million and $30 million. It invests nationwide, but it has one portfolio company in The Netherlands.

Seidler’s portfolio companies run the gamut from gaming companies and office accessory providers to medical suppliers and specialty chemical manufacturers. The firm’s portfolio includes health club company L.A. Fitness; Sarasota, Fla.-based medical product providers Paragon Medical and Fairfield, N.J.-based Ortho-Craft; screen print industry servers Amscomatic, based in Winder, Ga. and Glen Ellyn, Ill.-based Elexon.

Peter Seidler and his brother Robert Seidler founded the firm with Eric Kutsenda in 2000. The firm has seven investment professionals, in-house legal counsel and an operations partner in addition to administrative staff.