News

News

Houston, TX March 16, 2010

The Sterling Group Closes $820 Million Fund III

The Sterling Group, L.P. a Houston based middle-market private equity firm focused on operational value creation, today announced the final closing of Sterling Group Partners III, L.P. (Fund III) at $820 million. Fund III, raised in 10 months and oversubscribed, closed significantly above its $600 million target. It is the successor to Sterling Group Partners II, L.P. (Fund II), a $470 million private equity fund organized in 2005. With the close of Fund III, Sterling has approximately $1.3 billion in committed capital under management.

As with previous funds, the objective of Fund III is to create superior returns by acquiring companies with significant opportunities to drive strategic and operational improvements in partnership with management. Fund III will focus on middle-market businesses in manufacturing, industrial service and distribution, typically with $100 million to $500 million in total enterprise value. The Fund will focus primarily on corporate carve outs, buy and builds, family-owned businesses and other complicated sale processes.

Lazard Freres acted as Sterling’s exclusive global placement agent for Fund III. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP acted as legal counsel.

About The Sterling Group, L.P.
Founded in 1982, The Sterling Group is a Houston based private equity firm targeting controlling interests in basic manufacturing, industrial services, and distribution companies. Sterling emphasizes strategic and operational value creation in partnership with management. Typical enterprise values range from $100 to $500 million. Over its nearly 30 year history, Sterling has acquired 36 platform companies and numerous add-on acquisitions aggregating approximately $8.6 billion in transaction value. Currently, Sterling has $1.3 billion of committed capital under management.