Wafra and Landmark Partners have made a non-voting minority investment in Siris Capital Group.
Siris Capital makes control investments in data, telecommunications, technology and technology-enabled business service companies in North America. The firm was founded in 2011 by Frank Baker, Peter Berger and Jeffrey Hendren and is based in New York (www.siriscapital.com).
“Peter, Jeff and I are pleased to welcome Wafra and Landmark as strategic investors as we embark on our next phase of growth,” said Mr. Baker. “These investments are a testament to the value of Siris’ differentiated approach to technology investing, and our partnership with Wafra and Landmark will help us continue to capitalize on attractive opportunities in our focus areas.”
Siris is currently investing from its latest buyout fund, Siris Partners IV LP, which closed in February 2019 at an above-target $3.4 billion. The firm’s earlier fund closed with $1.8 billion of capital commitments in 2015.
“Driven by a talented investing team with deep domain expertise, Siris has the right infrastructure in place to skillfully execute on its differentiated investment strategy,” said Russell Valdez, chief investment officer of Wafra. “Together with our partners, we look forward to the firm’s continued success.” New York-based Wafra has more than $23 billion of assets under management and invests across a range of asset classes including minority investments in private equity firms (www.wafra.com).
“Siris is an impressive technology investor with significant experience working with mature companies to navigate difficult technology transitions while creating value through hands-on operational involvement,” said Ian Charles, a partner at Landmark. “We look forward to the partnership in the years ahead.” Landmark specializes in secondary market transactions of private equity, real estate and infrastructure investments and has $27 billion of committed capital. The firm was founded in 1989 and has offices in Boston, Dallas, London, New York and Simsbury, CT (www.landmarkpartners.com).
Goldman Sachs & Co. (www.goldman.com) and Berkshire Global Advisors (www.berkshireglobal.com) were the financial advisors to Siris on this transaction. Kirkland & Ellis (www.kirkland.com) served as legal counsel to Siris.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | April 3, 2019
