- Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (THL) – a premier private equity firm investing in middle-market growth companies – announced the successful final close of its ninth flagship fund at a hard cap of $5.6 billion. These are the details.
Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (THL) – a premier private equity firm investing in middle-market growth companies – announced the successful final close of its ninth flagship fund Thomas H. Lee Equity Fund IX at its hard cap with $5.6 billion in capital commitments. Fund IX had received strong demand from investors and over $250 million of General Partner commitments.
And a global and diverse group of new and existing limited partners have committed capital to Fund IX, including leading public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, banks, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals.
Fund IX is going to continue THL’s strategy of investing behind its Identified Sector Opportunities (ISOs) – which benefit from robust secular growth trends. And within its ISOs, THL focuses on investing in middle-market growth companies with high-quality business models and attractive return on invested capital characteristics.
A major component of THL’s partnership approach is its Strategic Resource Group (SRG), an in-house team of 18 professionals who specialize in accelerating company growth. And this internal operating team offers a broad suite of scalable services in critical areas like technology and innovation, go-to-market strategy and execution, operations and productivity, organizational design, M&A integration, and cross-portfolio services.
The closing of Fund IX comes on the heels of an active year for THL – which included the close of a $900 million automation-focused private equity fund (the Automation Fund). And the Automation Fund is the only private equity fund dedicated to the automation sector and reflects the highly focused deep domain expertise that is one of the key pillars of THL’s long-developed strategy.
Fund IX already committed approximately $935 million, or 17% of total committed capital, to four companies: Brooks Automation, Odessa, House of Design, and Bazaarvoice. And through Fund VIII and the Automation Fund, THL has committed approximately $964 million over the last 12 months to the following companies: Alight Solutions, FourKites, AbacusNext, Ashling Partners, Care Hospice, and Insurance Technologies.
KEY QUOTES:
“The successful fundraise speaks to the strength of our value creation capabilities and domain expertise, which allow us to move with speed and certainty to support our portfolio companies through their next stage of growth. Particularly over the last decade, we have heavily invested in our firm to develop a roster of industry-leading talent, allowing us to work at a level of depth that can truly impact operating company performance. By developing a deep industry knowledge in our ISOs, we are able to identify the best opportunities and deliver unique value from day one.”
— Todd Abbrecht, Co-CEO of THL
“We greatly appreciate our limited partners’ strong support and confidence in our ability to identify and execute on attractive opportunities in our areas of focus that can grow through market and business cycles. The overwhelming investor demand for Fund IX is a testament to our talented investment and operational teams and reflects a shared conviction in the middle-market growth opportunities across the Financial Services, Healthcare, and Technology and Business Solutions sectors.”
— Scott Sperling, Co-CEO of THL
