Calera Capital reaches $261.9 mln in commitments for Fund V

Middle-market specialist Calera Capital Partners said it drew in $261.9 million from 30 LPs for its fifth buyout fund after announcing its first deal from the pool last year, according to a filing.

How much the firm is targeting for the pool is unclear. A spokesman for Calera Capital did not answer an email about Fund V.

In November, Calera paid an undisclosed sum to buy Transaction Services Group Ltd, a payment-solutions provider, as its first investment from Fund V.

Fund V lists a date of first sale of August 28, 2015, according to an amended Form D. An earlier Form D for Fund V, filed in early August, listed no dollar amount raised at that time.

Typically, Calera Capital targets operating companies with enterprise values as high as $750 million, with $35 million to $150 million deployed in each transaction, not including co-investment dollars.

Calera Capital III, the firm’s vintage 2002 fund, delivered a return of 1.1x invested capital as or May 31, 2015, for Oklahoma Police Pension & Retirement System, according to data from the pension fund. Its vintage 2008 Fund IV provided a 1.6x return as of the same date.

The firm, which takes its name from a type of limestone used in construction, has invested more than $2.7 billion in capital since its launch in 1991, mostly in business services and specialty industrial companies. It’s also invested in retail, healthcare and consumer food firms.

Based in Boston and San Francisco, Calera Capital said it evolved not from Wall Street but from a “family-owned, entrepreneurial firm” with business experience worldwide, according to its website.

Founders and management teams of its portfolio companies have invested more than $1 billion of their own capital alongside Calera Capital, according to the firm’s website.

Among its recent deals, its portfolio company ModSpace set plans in March to merge with Williams Scotsman in a deal expected to close by the end of the third quarter. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Last October, it acquired a majority stake in RFIB Holdings Ltd, the international Lloyd’s insurance and reinsurance broker.

Three managing partners head up the firm: James Farrell, Mark Williamson and Robert Jaunich II. Jaunich founded Calera Capital and led its predecessor, Fremont Partners.

Farrell, who co-founded the firm in 1991, previously worked as an independent investor assisting Rainwater Inc in a transaction that led to the successful restructuring of AmeriCredit.

Williamson joined the firm in 1996 after working at Harvard Private Capital Group.

The firm changed its name from Fremont Partners to Calera Capital in 2007 ahead of raising its fourth fund. That pool closed on $700 million, short of its $1.25 billion target, during the global financial crisis in 2009. The firm’s Fund III drew in $920 million.

The firm changed its name to distance itself from its former links to Freemont Group, its first institutional investor, according to a statement.

Action Item: List of Calera Capital portfolio companies, http://bit.ly/1MTFqgx

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