Firms & Funds

Vista Equity eyes up to $2 bln for next credit pool

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Vista Equity Partners, private equity, Robert Smith
Robert Smith
  • Closed Fund II on close to $1 bln: source
  • Credit team invests in Vista deals and outside transactions
  • Firm hired GSO executive to lead credit platform

Vista Equity Partners is gearing up to raise its third credit fund, which could raise up to $2 billion, sources told Buyouts.

If the pool hits the high end of the range, it would be a quick expansion of a strategy that had a slow start. Vista’s debut fund, which filed a fundraising notice with the SEC in October 2013, reportedly collected about $196 million on an initial goal of $600 million.

Fund II, however, raised almost $1 billion, sources told Buyouts. Vista filed a Form D with the SEC for Fund II in March 2016. It’s not clear when Fund II held a final close.

Performance data for the first two funds was unavailable.

Vista’s credit platform has a new leader in David Flannery, who joined late last year from GSO Capital Partners, where he was a senior managing director. The credit funds are led by Principals Kristine Jurczyk and Joshua Niedner.

Jurczyk joined Vista in 2013 from the former GE Antares (which was subsequently acquired by CPPIB), while Niedner, a former Madison Capital executive, joined in 2015.

Vista’s credit funds provide senior debt to the firm’s own deals as well as outside transactions. Its deals include the $175 million recapitalization of Meltwater, a digital communications company, which closed earlier this month; Tibco Software, which it acquired in 2014; Omnitracs, a provider of fleet management software that Vista bought in 2013; and compliance software company NAVEX Global, which Vista acquired in 2014, according to Vista’s website.

Vista also is preparing to launch its second Endeavor fund, which targets small market enterprise software investments. Endeavor Fund II could target around $750 million, Buyouts previously reported.

The firm, which is led by Robert Smith and co-led by Brian Sheth, will likely close its seventh flagship fund by the summer, sources said. Fund VII is targeting up to $16 billion, Buyouts has reported.

Alan Fleischmann, spokesman with Vista, declined to comment.

Update: This story was updated to include a decline to comment from Vista spokesman. 

Action Item: Reach David Flannery through his secretary at 212-804-9142