CORE Industrial Partners has held a final close of CORE Industrial Partners Fund I LP with total commitments of $230 million. The new fund was significantly oversubscribed with demand in excess of the initial target of $200 million and initial hard cap of $225 million.
The new fund’s limited partners include university endowments, insurance companies, public pensions, corporate pensions, foundations, asset managers, family offices, and fund of funds.
“We are enormously honored and humbled by the overwhelming interest in our inaugural fund,” said John May, founder and managing partner at CORE. “We credit this milestone to the track record of our experienced team of investment and operational professionals, and our investment strategy focused solely on lower middle market industrial businesses.
CORE makes control investments in companies that have revenues of up to $200 million, EBITDA of up to $20 million, and enterprise values up to $150 million. Sectors of interest include a range of specialty verticals within the manufacturing and industrial technology sectors and include aerospace and defense; automotive and transportation; building and infrastructure products; electrical and power products; food manufacturing; engineered components; machinery and equipment; paper and packaging; testing and measurement; automation; specialty materials; textiles; and chemicals. CORE was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Chicago (www.coreipfund.com).
CORE has already closed three transactions for Fund I. In December 2017, it acquired Contoocook, NH-based Prototek Sheetmetal Fabrication, a rapid prototyping service provider of CNC machined and sheet metal fabricated parts and components (www.prototekmanufacturing.com). Then, in July 2018, Prototek completed its first add-on with the buy of Sunnyvale, CA-based Hayes Manufacturing Services, a provider of precision-machined plastic and metal components for both rapid prototyping and low-volume
production applications (www.hayesms.com). Finally, in September 2018, CORE acquired Midwest Composite Technologies, a Hartland, WI-based provider of 3D prototyping and low-volume production services, as well as CNC machining, injection molding and industrial design (www.midwestcomposite.com).
“We are incredibly appreciative of the support received from our world-class group of limited partners and look forward to the continued execution of our operationally driven value creation playbook by pursuing attractive investment opportunities that will realize significant value for all our stakeholders,” added Mr. May.
Sixpoint Partners was the placement agent for CORE’s inaugural fund. “CORE has differentiated itself within the fund community with its team of highly experienced investment and operational professionals, and an investment strategy focused solely on lower middle market industrial businesses,” said Larry Smith, a partner at Sixpoint.
Sixpoint is an advisor to the middle-market private equity industry with three areas of focus: (i) primary fund placement and advisory; (ii) secondaries placement and advisory and; (iii) co-investment placement across a range of industries, strategies, and geographies. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Austin and Hong Kong (www.sixpointpartners.com).
“CORE’s success is a great example of Sixpoint’s continuing interest in working with outperforming first-time funds that can benefit from our comprehensive and strategic fundraising services,” added Eric Zoller, founder and partner at Sixpoint.
Winston & Strawn (www.winston.com) provided legal services to CORE on this fundraise.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | February 20, 2019