Odyssey eyes $3 bln for Fund VI

Odyssey Investment Partners is back in the market, with its next fund targeting $3 billion, two sources told Buyouts. 

Odyssey Investment Partners VI will continue the firm’s focus on middle market business services and industrials companies. Odyssey uses a buy-and-build approach to investing, focusing on companies with Ebitda between $20 million and $100 million, the firm’s website said.  

Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund committed $20 million to Odyssey’s Fund VI recently, Buyouts previously reported. 

Odyssey closed Fund V on $2 billion in 2014. Fund V was generating a 0.82 investment multiple and a -12.01 internal rate of return as of June 30, 2018, according to performance information from the Montana Board of Investment. 

The firm closed Fund III on $750 million in 2005 and Fund IV on $1.5 billion in 2009. Fund IV was producing a 3.7x multiple and a 33.4 percent IRR as of Mar. 31, 2019, according to performance information from San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System. 

Odyssey was formed in 1997 by Steven Berger, Muzzafar Mirza, Paul Barnett, Brian Kwait and Bill Hopkins. The group had previously worked at hedge fund Odyssey Partners since 1993, according to an investment memo from Portfolio Advisors. 

Mirza died in 2005 at age 49 of pancreatic cancer. Barnett left in 2004 and is a managing director at Ulysses Management. Odyssey is owned and led by Berger, Kwait and Hopkins, according to the firm’s Form ADV. Odyssey managed about $2.6 billion as of Dec. 31, 2018, the Form ADV said. 

A spokesman for Odyssey declined to comment.

Action Item: Check out Odyssey’s Form ADV here: https://bit.ly/2JterKK