Firm: Yucaipa Companies
Fund: Yucaipa American Alliance Fund II LP
Amount Raised: $1.5 billion
Target: $2.0 billion
Placement Agent: Atlantic-Pacific Capital Inc.
The Los Angeles investment shop has pulled in 38 investors and garnered more than $1.5 billion in commitments for
The minimum commitment level for the fund is $5 million. Atlantic-Pacific Capital Inc., based in Greenwich, Conn., is listed as the firm’s placement agent and is slated to collect an estimated finder’s fee of $3.4 million for its efforts, according to the regulatory filing. Yucaipa received its first commitment for the fund in March 2008.
The fundraising effort was helped early on by the
Other investors in the fund include
Investment professionals at Yucaipa have provided 5 percent of the fund’s commitments with firm founder Ron Burkle’s own money making up a quarter of that sum.
The fund plans to be the lead investor in 10 to 15 “management intensive” transactions with equity investments falling between $50 million and $300 million, according to the document from Hamilton Lane. The fund’s specialty will be “control buyouts of operationally complex and/or underperforming core businesses in labor intensive industries.”
At least one transaction already closed by the fund, however, doesn’t fit with the vehicle’s described affinity for control. In January, the firm wrapped up a deal from the pool to acquire almost 10 percent of high-end grocer Whole Foods Market Inc. for about $99 million.
Founded in 1986, Yucaipa has invested a total of $3.3 billion in 40 deals and come away with $5.2 billion in proceeds, and a return multiple of 2x, according to Hamilton Lane.