Lime Rock closes third fund on $425m

Westport, Connecticut-based Lime Rock Partners has announced the close of its third fund on $425 million (€327 million).

The energy-focused private equity firm will continue the strategy employed in its previous two funds, investing in growth-stage companies in the conventional oil service, oil service technology, and exploration and production sectors.

Forty institutional investors, including major endowments, foundations and public pension funds, invested in Fund III. More than 80 percent of the fund’s capital commitments came from return investors.

According to a statement, Lime Rock began meeting with institutional investors in September 2004. Fundraising was assisted by Boston-based placement agent Monument Group, which also helped with Lime Rock’s second fund.

Lime Rock, which also has offices in Houston; Aberdeen, Scotland; and Calgary, Canada closed its premier fund back in October 1998 on $105 million. Fund II closed in October 2002 with $320 million in capital commitments. The two funds have provided capital to 26 companies.

Most recently in June, Lime Rock teamed with Paris-based private equity fund SGAM/4D Global Energy Development Capital to buy Serimer DASA, a Paris-based provider of automatic welding services for offshore and onshore pipelines, from Stolt Offshore, the UK-based underwater engineering and construction services firm.