Littlejohn holds first close on $380m

Greenwich, Connecticut-based private equity firm Littlejohn & Co. announced today the first closing of its third fund, Littlejohn Fund III, on $380 million (€290 million). The firm began fundraising in the fall of 2004 and has set a target of $600 million and a cap of $650 million.

Chairman and chief executive officer Angus Littlejohn commented in a press release that “participations in Fund III have been offered primarily to existing LPs as well as those institutions with whom Littlejohn has had a prior relationship.”

The firm’s prior funds, Littlejohn Fund II and Littlejohn Direct Investment Program, had total commitments of $530 million and $205 million, respectively. Investors in the first fund, which closed in 1997, included McDonald Investment Company, BancBoston, Chase Capital Partners, GE Capital, MIT, Teachers Insurance, SBC Warburg, and the pension of EI Dupont.

Littlejohn & Co. was founded in 1996 by Littlejohn, former co-founder of Joseph, Littlejohn & Levy. In December 2004, the firm’s portfolio company, Wyle Laboratories, announced the acquisition of the aeronautics business of General Dynamics for an undisclosed sum. Earlier in the year, Littlejohn sold its portfolio company Jerr-Dan to Oshkosh Truck Corporation for $80 million.