Kline Hill beats $120 mln target, heads for $180 mln hard cap

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Emil Capital, Data Council, private equity, merger, M&A, Tengelmann
A resident skies through a park during a snow storm in Old Greenwich, Connecticut January 23, 2016. A monster blizzard that has paralyzed much of the U.S. East Coast intensified on Saturday as it barreled into New York City, forcing the closure of all bridges and tunnels into the largest U.S. city and prompting a travel ban on area highways. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
  • Kline Hill beats $120 mln target
  • Connecticut firm acquires small-cap secondary stakes
  • Founder Michael Bego launched Kline Hill last year

Kline Hill Partners beat its $120 million target for its debut secondaries fund, holding an interim close on $128.5 million, according to SEC filings and a source with knowledge of the fund. The firm will continue to raise money toward its $180 million hard cap.

Former Willowridge Partners Managing Partner Michael Bego founded Kline Hill last year. The firm raised money from U.S. and international foundations, endowments and family offices.

Kline Hill, Greenwich, Connecticut, acquires limited-partner stakes in private equity funds through the secondary market, typically purchasing commitments in the single-million-dollar range. The firm will target primarily buyout and venture funds but may pick up stakes in energy, real estate and other private market funds as well, its website says.

“It’s an area where there’s an awful lot of work to put out a small amount of money,” Bego told Buyouts in a prior interview. “That deters a lot of people. It’s fairly labor intensive.”

Partner Jared Barlow, formerly of Sweetwater Capital and Partners Group, in a prior interview called small-cap secondaries a “small-is-beautiful story.”

“The smaller end of the market is somewhat insulated from the pay-up pricing of the midcap and larger-cap transactions that are going to have more capital chasing them,” he said.

In addition to Bego and Barlow, Kline Hill also hired Danielle Buccola to manage its finances and operations. Tom Melly, formerly of CRT Capital, is an associate at the firm.

Cambridge Associates’ former head of PE secondaries, Priya Pradhan Karkar, advises the firm.

Action Item: Kline Hill: http://klinehillpartners.com/

A resident skis through a park during a snowstorm in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, on January 23, 2016. Photo courtesy Reuters/Adrees Latif