Charlesbank Capital Partners has completed fundraising for Charlesbank Credit Opportunities Fund II (COF II) with limited partner commitments in excess of its USD700 million hard cap.Established in 1998, Charlesbank is an experienced middle-market private equity firm with a strong history of investing across a range of core sectors and business cycles. In 2016, the firm launched its integrated credit strategy, designed to benefit from the insights and unique opportunities arising from Charlesbank’s long-term private equity platform. Consistent with its predecessor fund, COF II will focus on credit investments in established middle-market companies, primarily in North America and with average enterprise values between USD150 million and USD1.5 billion.
“We believe the attractiveness of our credit strategy stems from our differentiated investment approach which leverages Charlesbank’s proprietary insights, extensive network and strong diligence capabilities in a fully integrated investment process,” says Sandor Hau, a Managing Director at Charlesbank and Head of the Credit team. “We expect to see continued opportunity to invest in mispriced credit risk and look forward to putting our investors’ capital to work with the goal of generating attractive, risk-adjusted returns.”
The investor base for COF II, which held its final closing on 2 July, 2020, comprises a diverse group of more than 30 institutional investors including public and corporate pensions, endowments, foundations, financial institutions, asset managers and family offices, as well as high net worth individuals.
“We are grateful for the support and confidence in Charlesbank from our investors, both existing and new, and are pleased with the success of this fundraising, particularly during these unprecedented times,” says Maggie Sahlman, Head of Investor Relations at Charlesbank.
“Our strategy is particularly well-suited to the current investment environment and we have a strong capital base to invest in the compelling credit opportunities in our pipeline,” said Brandon White, a Managing Director at Charlesbank and Co-Chair of the Credit Investment Committee.
In addition to COF II, Charlesbank is currently investing its ninth Flagship Private Equity fund, which has USD3.0 billion in total commitments. The firm also launched its Technology Opportunities strategy in 2019, which held a final close for its first fund earlier this year at the hard cap of USD700 million in limited partner commitments.
Monument Group and GrovePeak served as placement agents to Charlesbank on the raising of COF II. Goodwin served as legal counsel.
