CenterOak Partners, a new Dallas-based private equity firm focused on making control-oriented investments in middle market companies, has been formed by Randall Fojtasek, former co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Brazos Private Equity Partners.
Fojtasek will lead the firm alongside former Brazos senior executives Michael Salim, Lucas Cutler, Jason Sutherland and William Henry.
CenterOak’s senior leadership team has approximately 12 years of experience working together and more than 110 years of combined industry expertise.
In addition to CenterOak’s investment and portfolio management team, three operating partners will support the firm’s sector-specific investment activities. These operating partners are senior executives that bring almost 20 years of collective experience working with the CenterOak investment team.
CenterOak is focused on investing approximately USD20 million to USD70 million of equity capital in middle market companies with high potential for long-term growth. While target investments will be in middle market companies throughout the US, CenterOak will place a strong emphasis on the Southwest and South in niche segments of three core industry sectors: industrial growth, consumer and business services.
The firm will seek to invest in buyouts and recapitalisations of middle market companies, such as closely-held or family-owned businesses, non-core subsidiaries of larger public or private companies and buy-and-build opportunities with proven executives, and will attempt to construct a diversified portfolio of platform investments across the three core industry sectors.
“We are excited to continue working together at CenterOak. This experienced senior investment and operating team has a longstanding history of creating value for our investors and management partners alike,” says Randall Fojtasek, managing partner of CenterOak. “We look forward to continuing to build strong relationships with management teams and our operating partners at CenterOak, and are confident that our investment approach to value creation will continue to generate success.”
Fojtasek was co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Brazos, having managed USD1.4 billion of private equity capital across three funds and overseeing the deployment of over USD2.5 billion in transaction value.
