Kingswood Capital Management, an LA-based private equity firm focused on buyouts of middle-market businesses with operational improvement potential, announced the final closing of Kingswood Capital Opportunities Fund III, L.P., with total capital commitments of $1.5 billion, including a 5% GP commitment, emphasizing the firm’s confidence in its strategy and providing strong alignment with its investors. This brings the firm’s total assets under management (AUM) to about $3.2 billion.
Fund III was oversubscribed and was raised on an expedited basis, closing in approximately 90 days and surpassing its $1 billion target.
Fund III is over double the size of Fund II and includes commitments from leading endowments, foundations, health systems, public pension plans, family offices, funds of funds, other institutions, and high-net worth individuals. And nearly all existing investors re-upped, and Kingswood welcomed many prominent new investors into Fund III that broadens the firm’s limited partner base in the United States, Europe, Asia, and for the first time, the Middle East.
The closing of Fund III represents its third institutional fundraise in just over three years. And the team has grown to 24 professionals, with further additions planned to support its strong growth.
Lazard acted as exclusive placement agent for Fund III and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal adviser.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are grateful to our existing and our new limited partners for their trust and support in Kingswood and their confidence in our ability to continue delivering strong returns as we seek to expand our capacity to drive value and growth for partners in the middle market. With Fund III, we will continue our differentiated investment strategy of seeking out opportunities for asymmetric upside that other firms often overlook, while preserving downside protection and leveraging our network to attract and apply deep operational expertise. We believe this approach has resonated well with investors, allowing us to rapidly raise and deploy capital for our strategy, and grow the businesses in which we invest.”
- Alex Wolf, Managing Partner of Kingswood
“We are thrilled to continue the partnership with our existing investors, and we welcome our new partners as we continue to execute on our investment strategy. We believe we’ll be deploying Fund III into an accelerating market opportunity for Kingswood’s strategy of operationally-focused investing.”
- Kingswood Partners Michael Niegsch and Jim Renna
