Clearlake Capital Group has held a final close of Clearlake Opportunities Partners II LP (COP II) with $1.4 billion of capital commitments. COP II was oversubscribed and closed at its hard cap.
The new fund will make non-control investments in middle market companies across Clearlake’s target sectors of software and technology-enabled services; industrials and energy; and consumer. More than 40 different institutional investors are investors in COP II including public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, and family offices.
“We want to thank all of the limited partners in COP II, who through their commitments have shown they believe in the proven Clearlake value creation model, our sector focus, and our flexible investment strategy,” said José Feliciano, co-founder and managing partner at Clearlake. “We believe our continued strategic focus, backed by our financial discipline, systematic approach to operational improvement, O.P.S.®, and our cohesive team, provides our limited partners with the partnership they seek, and we look forward to leveraging the firm’s capabilities to deliver on our strategy.” Clearlake’s O.P.S. model stands for operations, people and strategy.
COP II has already begun investing. In April 2019 it made an investment in Appriss, a Louisville-based provider of data and analytics used for risk assessment and mitigation in the public safety, healthcare, and retail sectors. With the investment, Clearlake became an equal partner in Appriss alongside management and Insight Partners, which invested in Appriss in 2014.
“We are pleased to bring the proven strategy of the Clearlake franchise to investors in COP II, and we thank our growing base of limited partners for their confidence,” said Behdad Eghbali, co-founder and managing partner at Clearlake. “The Clearlake team is uniquely positioned to execute COP II’s strategy alongside our flagship private equity control fund because of our deep sector expertise. We look forward helping companies grow from the lower end of the middle market to the upper end with improving multiples, as we continue to demonstrate the power of the Clearlake platform.”
In March 2018, Clearlake held a final close of its latest flagship fund, Clearlake Capital Partners V LP, with over $3.6 billion in commitments. Fund V exceeded its target and was substantially oversubscribed, reaching its hard cap. Fund V is the largest fund that Clearlake has ever raised.
Clearlake was co-founded by Mr. Feliciano and Mr. Eghbali in 2006 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA (www.clearlakecapital.com).
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) was the placement agent for COP II and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison provided legal services.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | June 26, 2019