Goldman spinout raises $1bn transportation fund

Rye, New York-based Greenbriar Equity Group has announced the close of its second fund on $1 billion. The fund exceeded its initial target of $750 million.

Seventy-three percent of the committed capital for Fund II came from investors in Greenbriar’s first fund, which closed on $700 million in August of 2001. Fund I invested in GM’s electro-motive division, and Western Peterbilt, among other companies.

Greenbriar invests in companies in the transportation industry, including freight and passenger transport, aerospace and defense, automotive, and distribution and logistics. The firm invests in companies with acquisition values in excess of $100 million.

The firm’s managing partners are Reginald Jones, Gerald Greenwald, and Joel Beckman. Both Jones and Beckman come from Goldman Sachs, where Greenwald was global head of the firm’s transportation banking group, which Beckman founded. Greenwald was previously the chairman and chief executive officer of UAL, where he led the employee buyout of United Airlines. He was also vice chairman, and previously chief financial officer, of Chrysler.