Armstrong to leave H.I.G.’s middle-market team

Tim Armstrong, a managing director in H.I.G. Capital’s middle-market business, is leaving the firm after six years.

It’s not clear if Armstrong is taking on another job. He will transition out of H.I.G. by the first quarter, according to Brian Schwartz, executive managing director and co-head of H.I.G.’s middle-market fund.

“His departure is more a re-alignment,” Schwartz said. “The types of deals he was doing and the focus on his investments is different from what we’re doing in Fund II.”

Armstrong is a growth-focused investor, but Fund II is a “heavy value fund,” Schwartz said. Value funds focus on finding undervalued companies rather than those poised for growth.

H.I.G. has no plans to directly replace Armstrong. The middle-market group is made up of about 38 professionals across offices in Miami, New York and San Francisco, Schwartz said.

Armstrong joined H.I.G. in 2008 after working as a partner at Apax Partnersfrom 2005 to 2008. He worked at Saunders Karp & Megrue from 1996 through 2005, according to his LinkedIn profile.

H.I.G. Middle Market LBO Fund II, which closed on its $1.75 billion hard cap earlier this year, will continue the group’s strategy of private equity, buyout and equity-related investments in middle-market companies in the United States.

Fund II began investing at the end of the third quarter, Schwartz said. “We dry closed [the fund]. We closed it in April of 2014 … and put it in the drawer until we were ready to open it up.”

Today’s high-priced environment is “as tough as it’s ever been,” Schwartz said. “You have to be nimble and opportunistic and work deals hard. We’re pretty bullish. We look for value and there’s still pockets to deploy [capital].”

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