Turnaround Shop Delays Fundraising

Monomoy Capital Partners has delayed its major fundraising push for its second fund to concentrate on spending the remainder of its debut fund, a source familiar with the firm’s plans told Buyouts. The firm is expected to shoot for a target range of $300 million to $350 million once it re-starts raising its second fund.

Buyouts reported in April that Fund I was two-thirds invested, and that executives planned to preserve 20 percent to 25 percent of the remaining capital for add-on and follow-on investments. Since that report the firm has bought the assets of Global Thermoplastics LP, a Houston-based maker of compounds used in plastics, and folded it into Fortis Plastics LLC. It also bought the assets of Atkins Elegant Desserts Inc., which will work closely with Awrey Bakeries LLC, a Livonia Mich.-based bakery owned by Monomoy Capital and Hilco Equity Management.

Executives at the New York-based turnaround shop had hoped to hold a first close on the second fund sometime in the second quarter of 2009, sources told Buyouts in April. They’re now hoping to renew the push for Fund II in the first quarter of 2010, our source said, with a close expected sometime in the first half of the year. The firm has retained MVision Private Equity Advisors, the placement agent that helped the Monomoy Capital raise its debut fund, to help it raise Fund II.

Monomoy Capital closed its first fund, the $280 million Monomoy Capital Partners LP, in January 2007, easily beating its $200 million target. The investor base for that fund is made up of approximately 18 institutional LPs, as well as friends and family related the firm, according to a story that appeared in Buyouts around the time of that vehicle’s final close.

With Fund II, Monomoy Capital plans to continue its strategy of targeting turnarounds in the lower end of the middle market. Typically, Monomoy Capital invests between $5 million and $30 million of equity capital to buy troubled companies that generate annual revenue anywhere from $20 million to $200 million.