Shoreline Equity Partners has held an oversubscribed and hard cap close of its first fund, Shoreline Equity Partners Fund LP, with $300 million in capital commitments.
Limited partners in the new fund include insurance companies, fund of funds, family offices and high net worth individuals. Shoreline was launched in March 2019 by Michael Hand and Peter Franz and fundraising for the firm’s inaugural fund – with a $250 million target – was initiated.
“We are very grateful to all of our limited partners for the resounding support and humbled by the overwhelming demand shown through the process,” said Mr. Hand. “The entire Shoreline team is excited to work closely with our portfolio company management teams and to continue backing and building leading lower middle-market businesses. Our emphasis on doing well by our investors, our management partners and the communities within which our portfolio companies operate has been exceptionally well-received.”
Mr. Hand has over 15 years of experience originating, analyzing, negotiating, monitoring, and exiting private equity investments. Prior to founding Shoreline, he co-founded and co-led PNC Riverarch Capital, the PNC Financial Services Group’s on-balance sheet private equity strategy.
“From the onset, Mike and I sought to assemble a diverse investor base with a wide range of investment experiences,” said Mr. Franz. “The composition of our limited partners validates our approach and the commitments from our executive network illustrate our relationships with management teams extend far beyond our initial investment partnership.”
Mr. Franz has over 20 years of partner-level private equity experience. Prior to founding Shoreline, he worked at Florida Capital Partners as a co-managing partner. Although they worked at different firms, the two founder’s past investment experience has overlapped, and they invested and managed several lower middle market portfolio companies alongside one another.
Jacksonville, Florida-based Shoreline invests up to $100 million per transaction in support of buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate divestitures. Typical target companies will have enterprise values from $25 million to $250 million and EBITDA of $5 million to $25 million. Areas of interest include non-capital-intensive businesses within the specialized manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business and industrial services sectors.
M2O Private Fund Advisors was the placement agent for this fundraise and Ropes & Gray provided legal services.
© 2020 Private Equity Professional | January 8, 2020
