Silver Lake, G&H raising new funds

SAN FRANCISCO – I picked up a couple of tidbits moderating a fund-raising panel on the mid-market at today’s Buyouts West conference.

During a discussion of tech buyout funds, one panelist who should know said there are about 20 such funds in the market right now. Most notably, Silver Lake Partners is said to be raising a $750 million fund aimed at the mid-market, as well as a $7.5 billion fund for larger deals. Silver Lake raised its last fund, $3.6 billionSilver Lake Partners II, in 2004. Its first fund, vintage 1999, returned 23.7%, according to CalPERS, an LP in the fund. Its second fund has an IRR of .2%, according to CalPERS.

Meanwhile, Garnett & Helfrich is trying to raise a second fund of $750 million. It raiseda first fund of $250 million in 2004 and then added another $100 million in September 2005. It will be interesting to see if G&H can raise a second fund without any realizations from its first. Thomson Financial shows that G&H has made threeinvestments to date: Blade Network Technologies, Wyse Technology andCelunite.