Waud Capital Partners has held a final close of its fourth private equity fund, Waud Capital Partners IV, with $1.056 billion of capital commitments. The new fund was oversubscribed and closed at the hard cap and above the original target of $750 million of limited partner commitments. The committed capital consists of $900 million from limited partners plus $156 million from the general partner and its affiliates.
Reeve Waud, Founder and Managing Partner of Waud Capital, was pleased with the quick fundraise. “Raising WCP IV in 12 weeks from the formal launch is a testament to the results we have delivered for our investors since the firm’s founding in 1993. Our performance is a direct result of the dedication, hard work and unwavering focus of our management partners on creating strong risk-adjusted returns.”
Waud Capital is led by Mr. Waud, Partners Matt Clary and David Neighbours, and Principals Justin DuPere, Chris Graber and Matt London. The firm makes investments from $50 million to $100 million in middle-market companies with enterprise values from $50 million to $250 million that operate in the healthcare services and business services sectors. Since its founding in 1993, Waud Capital has made more than 185 investments, including platform companies and follow-on opportunities. The firm is headquartered in Chicago (www.waudcapital.com).
“Our success is first and foremost about recruiting the best and the brightest investment professionals and partnering with exceptional CEOs. Our disciplined and process-driven investment approach – led by dedicated industry research, identifying and partnering with outstanding executives, and an exhaustive mapping of potential acquisitions – has been the key to our success,” said Mr. Waud.
Nearly all of Waud’s existing limited partners invested in WCP IV and the firm added a number of first-time limited partners. “We believe it is important to create a strong alignment with our limited partners, which we have done through the large general partner commitment to the fund.”
Waud Capital raised its first fund in 1999 with $115 million of capital commitments. The second fund followed in 2005 with $272 million of commitments and the third fund closed in 2011 with $487 million of commitments.
Kirkland & Ellis (www.kirkland.com) was the legal advisor to Waud Capital.
© 2016 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 2-22-16