Platte River Equity has held a final close of its fourth private equity investment fund, Platte River Equity IV, LP, at its hard cap of $625 million. Fundraising for the new fund began in March 2017 with an initial target of $550 million. The firm’s earlier fund, Platte River Equity III, LP, was raised in 2012 and had committed capital of $405 million.
Limited partners in Fund IV include a variety of institutional investors including endowments, pension funds, private foundations, funds of funds and family offices, as well as high net worth individuals. The principals of Platte River collectively remain the largest investor across all of its four funds, having committed more than $150 million since the firm’s inception in 2006. Capstone Partners was Platte River’s placement agent for this fundraise.
Platte River makes equity investments of $20 million to $80 million in lower middle-market companies with enterprise values between $40 million and $250 million. The firm focuses on investing in the aerospace and transportation; energy and power; agriculture and chemicals; and metals and minerals. Platte River is based in Denver (www.platteriverequity.com).
Platte River currently has 13 companies in its portfolio, none of them however are Fund IV investments. Earlier this week, Platte River acquired MFG Chemical, a custom and toll manufacturer of specialty chemicals, in partnership with the company’s founding family and management team. MFG manufactures polymers, surfactants and esters used in various applications in the oil field, water treatment, mining, coatings, agricultural and other industrial markets. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered north of Atlanta in Dalton, GA (www.mfgchemical.com). Platte River invested in MFG with capital from its third fund. In December 2016, Platte River acquired Tiger-Sul Products, a
manufacturer, importer and exporter of sulphur bentonite, sulphur bentonite micronutrients technology, and other crop performance products. Sulphur Bentonite is a 90% pure elemental form of Sulphur that provides degradable sulphur to plants and is a key nutrient that improves the metabolism of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Tiger-Sul is headquartered near New Haven in Shelton, CT (www.tigersul.com). Tiger-Sul was also acquired with capital from Platte River’s third fund.
Platte River was founded in 2006 and has now raised more than $1.3 billion of committed capital.
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | June 29, 2017