Pine Brook, a New York-based investment firm focused on building businesses in the financial services and energy sectors, has closed its second fund, Pine Brook Capital Partners II.
With total capital commitments of USD2.43bn, the fund exceeded the firm's target of USD2bn.
Fund II has made five investments to date totalling USD300m.
The new fund will have nearly 70 per cent more committed capital than the firm's USD1.4bn debut fund, with about half of the commitments coming from existing investors. New investors include public pensions and endowments from the US, as well as investors from China, Europe and Southeast Asia that further diversifies Pine Brook's institutional investor base.
"We are delighted with our success in raising a second fund and are fortunate to have such strong support from the investment community," says Howard Newman, president and CEO of Pine Brook. "This achievement validates our distinctive strategy of making business building and other growth investments."
"There is no shortage of macro factors driving investment opportunities in both of our targeted sectors, including regulatory changes, demographic shifts and financial repression in the financial services industry, and the unconventional revolution in oil and gas," says William Spiegel, co-founder of Pine Brook and head of the financial services investment team.
Like the firm's debut fund, Fund II will target investments in new and growing companies in the financial services and energy sectors. Pine Brook typically finances these businesses with equity rather than debt, and often uses a line of equity funding structure in which a multi-year business plan is matched with a long-term capital commitment.