Merit Capital Partners has exited its investment in Versatile Processing Group Inc., selling the company to Dallas, Texas-based private equity investor Insight Equity II L.P. Indianapolis-based Versatile is a provider of metal processing and recycling services to the electric utility and manufacturing industries. Terms of the deal were not released.

Insight Equity II LP, a Dallas, Texas-area headquartered private equity firm, has acquired a controlling interest in Versatile Processing Group. VPG is a leading industrial processor of non-ferrous and other metals servicing the manufacturing, electric utility, and metal recycling industries, including providing the industry’s most comprehensive repair, refurbishment, and decommissioning services for electrical utility equipment.

Insight Equity said Monday that it has acquired a controlling stake in BFN Operations, which has bought nearly all the operating assets of the Berry Family of Nurseries. Financial terms were not announced. Insight Equity is a Dallas PE firm. Tahlequah, Okla.-based BFN is a wholesale grower of perennial and woody ornamental plants.

Insight Equity has acquired a control stake in American Civil Constructors Holdings Inc., a provider of civil and landscape construction services in the Denver and San Francisco areas. No financial terms were disclosed.

Insight Equity, a Dallas-based private equity firm focused on the middle markets, announced that it has closed its second fund at $525 million, including $90 million for mezzanine investing. peHUB previously reported that the original target was $750 million.

peHUB has covered every nano-development in the fundraising processes of some firms,and Insight Equity and Prophet Equity are two such firms. That’s because an interesting narrative emerged from the parallel fundraising efforts. For all the background, you can read here, and here, and here, and here, but the short story is this:

Ross Gatlin left Dallas-based turnaround shop Insight Equity as the firm prepared to raise its second fund. He left partly because the firm’s terms and fund size were pretty ambitious. Insight had planned to increase its fund size from $300 million to $500 million, while introducing a graduated carry plan that reached 30% for anything above a 4x return, and included a new $250 million mezzanine sidecar fund. Meanwhile, Gatlin launched Prophet Equity and entered the market with a $250 million hard cap, standard carry and a higher than usual GP contribution.

Prophet Equity, a new-ish turnaround shop based in Dallas, has acquired Chief Supply and Law Enforcement Supply from Brooks Equipment Company, a firefighting supplier that Behrman Capital had owned since 1998, according to a source familiar with the situation. Prophet Equity bought the two companies and combined them under the name Public Safety Supply Resources. [...]

Insight Equity II First Report: October 3, 2008 Insight Equity Heads to Market With Second Fund “Insight Equity has hired UBS to help it raise its second fund, sources familiar with the effort said. The firm is planning a “substantial” increase in fund size, one source said.” Latest update: August 4, 2008 Insight Equity Inching [...]

Dallas-based turnaround firm Insight Equity has closed on $361 million for its second fund, a $500 million effort it entered the market with almost a year ago, according to a regulatory filing. If that sounds like a teeny tiny improvement over the firm’s last close, that’s because it is. Just a month ago, Insight Equity closed on $312.5 million. If this seems like an insignificant development to report, that’s because it is.

Insight Equity has promoted Eliot Kerlin to principal. He joined the firm in 2005, and manages its investment in RV component maker Atwood Mobile Products.