New Mountain Capital announced it has closed its second non-control private equity vehicle, New Mountain Strategic Equity Fund II, at $1.2 billion, exceeding the fund’s $1 billion “hard cap” after limited partners agreed to allow additional commitments.
The firm said general partner commitments totaled more than $150 million, positioning the GP as the largest investor in the fund and highlighting alignment with LPs.
SEF II follows New Mountain Strategic Equity Fund I, which raised about $640 million in 2020. New Mountain said that the earlier fund is fully invested in platform companies and generated “significant” co-investment opportunities for its limited partners.
The investor base for SEF II includes pension funds, insurers, asset managers, endowments, family offices, RIAs, and high-net-worth individuals, according to the firm, which added that the majority of SEF I investors returned for the new fund.
New Mountain said SEF II will continue its “defensive growth” strategy in minority, non-control transactions, targeting middle-market businesses in sectors it views as acyclical. Areas of focus include infrastructure services, life sciences and advanced materials, healthcare technologies, advanced data and analytics, software, financial and insurance services, and technology-enabled business services, among others.
Ahead of the final close, SEF II made one platform investment: Wipfli LLP, a middle-market accounting, tax, and advisory services provider. New Mountain framed the deal as an extension of its accounting-sector track record, citing prior investments including Citrin Cooperman and Grant Thornton from its control private equity funds.
Support: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett served as legal advisor to the fund. New Mountain said it manages private equity, strategic equity, credit, and net lease real estate strategies totaling approximately $60 billion in assets under management.
KEY QUOTES:
“We thank our Limited Partners for their friendship and support. Since our founding 25 years ago, New Mountain has sought to consistently ‘build great businesses’ in carefully chosen acyclical defensive growth sectors. We are proud of the firm and team we have built, as we seek to improve businesses across market cycles as both a control and non-control shareholder.”
Steve Klinsky, Founder and CEO, New Mountain Capital
“New Mountain has had a consistent focus on its deep research and underwriting approach to defensive growth industry sectors and has continued to grow its broader team to support business building and value creation, which are core tenets of our strategy in both control and non-control settings. We thank our investors for their outstanding support of New Mountain and strive to continuously deliver in the years ahead.”
Adam Weinstein, Managing Director, President and Chief Operating Officer, New Mountain Capital
“New Mountain will continue to execute on our strategy of partnering with leading founder- and sponsor-backed businesses in market niches we proactively select for investment.”
Joe Delgado, Managing Director, Head of Strategic Equity and Member of the Private Equity Leadership Committee, New Mountain Capital
“Our team intends to continue identifying premier companies in their respective sectors and delivering our value-added approach in partnership with world class management teams.”
Harris Kealey, Managing Director, New Mountain Capital
