Century Park closes $265m fund

Los Angeles-based private equity firm Century Park Advisers has closed its second fund, Century Park Capital Partners II, with $265 million (€206 million) in total commitments.

According to Martin Jelenko, one of Century Park’s four co-founders, the firm began fundraising around Labor Day with a target of $250 million. All of the investors in the first fund, save one, re-upped to invest in Century Park Capital Partners II, which Jelenko noted has 15 primary investors.

Credit Suisse First Boston acted as placement agent for the firm in their fundraising efforts.

The firm’s first fund, which closed on $107 million in 2000, has currently invested $80 million in seven portfolio companies. Jelenko added that the firm has recently signed two letters of intent that would require $16 million to $17 million of equity capital. Century Park typically invests in recapitalizations of middle market companies with an equity commitment of $10 million to $50 million.

In September 2004, Century Park sold its 44 percent stake in Becker Underwood to fellow buyout firm Norwest Equity Partners in a transaction valued at approximately $200 million. Century had invested $16.5 million in the agricultural chemical company in September 2001.

Century Park Capital was founded in 1999 by former investment bankers at Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin. Jelenko noted that the private equity firm, which had once been affiliated with Houlihan, amicably separated from the investment bank prior to raising their second fund.