TowerBrook Keeps Stride To $2.75B

TowerBrook Capital Partners has achieved more than one-third of its goal for its third buyout fund, according to a regulatory filing. With the help of placement agent UBS Securities, the London and New York-based firm, which is seeking $2.75 billion for TowerBrook Investors III LP, has raised $760 million thus far.

Contributing to that $760 million are commitments from the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board and Conversus Capital, which have both committed to the new vehicle this year. MassPRIM pledged $50 million; Conversus Capital, a publicly traded fund of funds, agreed to an undisclosed sum of less than $70 million.

TowerBrook Investors III LP is the firm’s second independent fundraising effort. After raising and deploying one fund under the umbrella of Soros Private Equity Partners, the firm became an independent entity in 2005. Its first stand-alone fund was TowerBrook Investors II LP, a $1.3 billion pool closed in March 2006. Soros Private Equity committed at least $250 million into that fund. Its commitment to TowerBrook Capital Partners’s third effort is unclear. Additional backers of prior TowerBrook Capital Partners funds include California Public Employees’ Retirement System, AIG and MetLife.

In a previous Buyouts interview, TowerBrook Capital Partners co-CEO Neal Mozkowski described the transatlantic firm’s investment strategy as slightly contrarian, explaining that the firm seeks complex transactions with mismanaged targets. Notably, the firm met success with its early-stage investment in passenger airline Jet Blue Airways, and the turnaround of Swiss cable service provider, Cablecom. This year it has purchased luxury shoe designer Jimmy Choo and spirits and wine retailer Beverages & More, both paid for with money from its second fund.—E.G.