Vance Street Capital has held a first, final, above target and hard cap closing of Vance Street Capital IV LP with $775 million of capital. Fundraising for Fund IV began in January 2024.
Vance Street, headquartered near Los Angeles in Pacific Palisades, makes control investments in North American-based companies with enterprise values of $30 million to $350 million and EBITDA of $3 million to $30 million. Sectors of interest include medical technology, life sciences, industrial technology, and aerospace & defense.
Fund IV has not yet acquired any platform companies but in March 2024 Vance Street’s third fund acquired its seventh platform investment with the buy of Keltec Technolab.
Ohio-headquartered Keltec designs and manufactures more than 12,000 SKUs of filtration products including air/oil separators, air filters, oil filters, exhaust mufflers, coalescing filters and refrigerated air dryers that are used in a variety of sectors including general industrial, pharmaceutical, and aerospace. According to the company, Keltec is the largest manufacturer of air/oil separators in North America.
Keltec was founded in 1982 by Edward Kaiser Sr. (he passed away in 2021) and today is led by his son and CEO, Ed Kaiser. As part of the transaction, the Kaiser family is retaining a significant ownership position in Keltec and will continue to lead the business going forward.
“We pride ourselves in partnering with founders and management teams who have built established, market leading companies to support their continued growth through investments in people, processes and technologies,” said Mike Janish, a managing partner at Vance Street. “Our expansive network of operators and executives help accelerate the implementation of our value creation initiatives, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with them for years to come.”
“We sincerely appreciate the strong show of support from both our existing and new limited partners to enable us to achieve the speed and success of our Fund IV fundraise,” said Brian Martin, a managing partner at Vance Street. “Our sector focus, expertise in manufacturing and engineering, deep bench of operational professionals and commitment to the lower middle market resonated with investors. We are proud of the team we have built at Vance Street and our track record creating highly sought after strategic assets.”
Vance Street’s third fund closed above target in December 2021 with $432 million in commitments, and its second fund closed in 2017 with $250 million in capital. With the close of Fund IV, Vance Street has now raised over $2 billion in total capital since its founding in in 2007.
M2O Private Fund Advisors was the placement agent for Fund IV and Kirkland & Ellis provided legal services.
© 2024 Private Equity Professional | May 14, 2024
