North Castle Partners and True Beauty Capital, founded by Richard Gersten, have partnered to acquire and provide operating support to companies in the beauty and personal care sectors.
Mr. Gersten was previously with North Castle from 1999 to 2007, and later, from 2007 to 2011 was with Catterton Partners. For the last 13 years, he has worked exclusively with companies operating in the beauty and personal care sectors.
Prior to founding True Beauty last month, Mr. Gersten was a partner at Tengram Capital where he was a member of its investment committee and served on the board of directors of Tengram’s eight beauty investments, including This Works, a developer of aromatherapeutic beauty products which was sold in April 2019; Laura Geller Beauty, a color cosmetics brand which was sold in December 2019; Deva Curl, a haircare brand which was sold in June 2017; and NEST Fragrances, a designer and manufacturer of fragrances and personal care products which was sold in November 2017.
Mr. Gersten and True Beauty have entered into a consulting agreement with Tengram to continue to provide advisory services to the beauty sector portfolio companies that it still owns including Cos Bar, Lime Crime, Algenist and ReVive Skincare.
In the new partnership, Mr. Gersten has agreed to work exclusively with North Castle on investments in the beauty and personal care sectors that require capital in excess of $10 million. Mr. Gersten will work with North Castle to source new investment opportunities and he will also provide advisory services post-acquisition. As part of the agreement, beauty, wellness and personal care brands requiring investments of less than $10 million can be independently pursued by True Beauty.
“I have been fortunate to have had successful partnerships with so many founders and CEOs in the beauty industry,” said Mr. Gersten. “With the combination of True Beauty and my strategic partnership with North Castle, I will be able to leverage my experience and relationships to do what I truly love — focus exclusively on the beauty and personal care categories across all investment types and stages. Rejoining the North Castle team in this new strategic partnership role makes this new venture even more rewarding.”
“We are excited to professionally rekindle a friendship that has spanned more than twenty years,” said Chip Baird, founder and CEO of North Castle. “We have enormous respect for Rich’s values, business judgment and track record. He understands the wide range of strategic and operational capabilities North Castle adds as we partner with management teams to build world-class companies. We welcome him back to the North Castle family and look forward to partnering with him in our new strategic relationship.”
Greenwich, Connecticut-based North Castle makes control investments in consumer-driven product and service companies located in North America. Sectors of specific interest include beauty and personal care; consumer health; fitness, recreation and sports; home and leisure; and nutrition.
In April 2019, North Castle closed its seventh fund, North Castle Partners VII LP, at its hard cap of $400 million. The new fund was oversubscribed and was raised in less than five months.
Private Equity Professional | April 15, 2020
Clearlake Capital Group has held a hard cap and oversubscribed final close of its sixth private equity fund, Clearlake Capital Partners VI LP, with more than $7 billion in commitments.
“At Clearlake, we are grateful to have garnered such strong support among our highly respected, global base of investors, and we are humbled to be able to continue our mission and strategy as the world grapples with this public health crisis and its effects,” said José Feliciano, co-founder and managing partner at Clearlake. “We believe this support reflects our market-leading investment performance, disciplined and operationally-oriented investment approach across economic cycles and ongoing commitment to our investors.”
“The Clearlake strategy has positioned our firm to take advantage of defensive growth as well as turnaround opportunities in this market,” said Mr. Eghbali. “Clearlake couples innovative investing with our proprietary approach to operational improvement – O.P.S. – which brings resources and expertise to companies and helps them build market-leading franchises. These are extraordinary times, and we believe our team is well-prepared to support existing portfolio companies as well as source new platforms as we invest this new fund. We thank our LPs for their support, and we are grateful every day for the hard work from our talented team at Clearlake and our portfolio companies.”
Knight Enterprises, a provider of communications infrastructure services, has been acquired by Mill Point Capital.
New York City-based 
Wynnchurch Capital has acquired the assets of Western Forge & Flange. The operations of Western will join with Pennsylvania Machine Works, which Wynnchurch acquired in February 2020, under a single platform.
“Western and Penn Machine have both built strong reputations for providing customers with specialty forged products for the most demanding applications with industry-leading service levels. We look forward to partnering with Walt, Joe and their teams,” said Greg Gleason, a partner at Wynnchurch.
In January 2020, Wynnchurch closed its fifth private equity fund, Wynnchurch Capital Partners V LP, with $2.28 billion of committed capital. The new fund, which began its marketing in September 2019 with a target of $1.6 billion, was oversubscribed and closed at its hard cap. Wynnchurch is actively seeking investment opportunities for its new fund.
