Monomoy Capital Back In Fundraising Mode

Monomoy Capital Partners is back in fundraising mode, raising $250 million for its second turnaround vehicle focused on the smaller end of the middle market.

The New York-based firm was formed in early 2005, when four investors with turnaround giant KPS Capital Partners left to hang their own shingle. “There’s just not as much capital chasing the small-middle market. We saw an opportunity and decided to pursue it,” co-founder Stephen Presser explained at the time.

Presser also said that Monomoy would not compete with KPS, but that a “more likely scenario is that we would work with [KPS] where our interests overlap.” From what we can tell, however, there has been neither competition nor corgial contact between the two firms. Basically a clean break.

Monomoy raised around $280 million for its debut fund, after targeting just $200 million (and receiving more than $400 million in interest). Our sister publication Buyouts reported last April that the first fund was two-thirds committed, and that premarketing already had begun for Fund II. It would appear the effort stalled, or was delayed, as a regulatory filing indicates that Monomoy had not yet hard circled any Fund II commitments.

MVision Private Equity Advisors is serving as placement agent.

Finally, Monomoy has lost one of its co-founding partners since the last go-around. Philip von Burg quietly left the firm last July, in order to form CastleGate Advisors. According to its website, the San Francisco-based firm is “an operations-focused private equity investor and provider of turnaround and interim management services for established, lower-middle market companies experiencing a transitional event.”

Neither Von Burg nor Monomoy returned requests for comment.