Littlejohn & Co. has received an undisclosed minority investment from Goldman Sachs Alternative Investments & Manager Selection Group. The PE firm will use the capital to grow.

Goldman made the investment through the firm’s AIMS Petershill fund. The buyer purchased a passive, non-voting stake in Littlejohn, valued less than 10 percent. AIMS Petershill invests minority stakes in private equity firms, hedge funds and alternative managers to help them with their strategic development. The fund has more than $150 billion under management.

Greenwich, Connecticut-based Littlejohn invests $50 to $150 million in businesses across the food and beverage, logistics, automotive, aerospace and defense and chemicals sectors. Some of the firm’s holdings include playground equipment maker PlayPower Holdings, construction materials distributor Interior Specialists and auto parts manufacturer Penda Corp.

Other financial services deals include American International Group Inc.’s (NYSEL AIG) pending sale of United Guaranty; ETrade Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: ETDC) agreed to acquire online trading company Aperture New Holdings Inc. ; and HGGC invested in  life insurance company Integrity Marketing Group LLC.

Barclays and Debevoise & Plimpton advised Littlejohn.

Financial services industry