Cleveland Shop Closes In On $300M Target

Primus, a private equity firm based in Cleveland, has raised almost $200 million for its seventh fund, according to a March 6 regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The firm is trying to raise $300 million for the fund, Primus Capital Fund VII LP, according to the filing. It doesn’t look like the firm has employed a placement agent to help it raise the capital.

Loyal Wilson, a Primus managing director who founded the firm back in 1983, declined to comment.

Primus invests $15 million to $40 million in buyouts, minority recapitalizations and growth financings in the business services, health care and education sectors. It typically holds its investments for three to seven years. Past investors have included the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund.

The firm has about 16 companies in portfolio, including American Institutes Holdings LLC, a White Plains, N.Y.-based operator of post-secondary schools; Community Education Centers Inc., a West Caldwell, N.J.-based company that provides treatment and services to help prisoners re-enter society; and Pegasus Tower Development Company LLC, a Richlands, Va.-based developer and operator of wireless communications towers.

Among the firm’s most recent deals, according to Capital IQ, was its sale In November of SterilMed Inc., a company that reprocesses and repairs medical equipment that Primus had teamed up with Great Hill Partners to buy in 2010, to Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc. for an undisclosed amount. It’s most recent investment appears to have been in September of last year, when it plugged an undisclosed amount of cash into G2 Web Services LLC, a Salt Lake City-based outfit that helps protect its clients’ brands on the Internet.

Before founding Primus, Wilson held various roles in the private equity group of First Chicago Corp., according to Primus’s Web site. Primus has 11 investment professionals, according to the site.

Bernard Vaughan is a senior editor at Buyouts Magazine. Follow his tweets @BVaughanReuters. Follow Buyouts tweets @Buyouts.