TA Associates has closed its latest fund, TA XI LP, a $4 billion vehicle, at a time when private equity as an asset class has continually struggled to amass capital.
In 2007, TA Associates wrapped up its sixth Atlantic & Pacific fund, totaling $1.75 billion, which allowed American and foreign LPs. The fund preceding TA XI LP was the TA X fund, which netted about $3.5 billion in 2006.
“Half of our deals are minority investments,” said Brian Conway, managing director with TA. “We are less involved in making acquisitions. Technology is one of our main areas of focus; that is consolidating.”
TA XI will make investments ranging in size from $60 million to $350 million; Goodwin Procter provided legal counsel to TA Associates.
TA Associates looks for businesses primarily in North America and Europe ranging in value from $150 million to $3 billion in industries including technology, software, communications, financial services, healthcare, business services, and consumer products and services. The private equity firm also makes debt investments up to $75 million; the 40-year old PE shop has offices in California, Massachusetts, London and Mumbai.
Among TA Associates’ active investments are 2nd Story Software, an Iowa-based tax prep filing service; Circle Graphics, a Colorado large format digital printer specializing in billboards; Car Toys Inc., which makes car audio and wireless products and Advisory Research, a Chicago investment firm managing public equity assets for major corporations.
Private equity fundraising has slowly shown some signs of resurgence, netting $76 billion through 82 funds in the second quarter alone, according to research from Prequin, a London- and New York-based private equity data provider. Still, 30 fund managers decided against pushing new LPs in the first half of the year, matching the total amount of aborted launches from 2008. Buyout investment groups raised $60 billion in the first quarter, well below the $148 billion secured in the first quarter of 2008.
In the second quarter, The Carlyle Group closed its fourth Asian growth capital fund at $1.04 billion; Aurora Capital Group raised almost $500 million for its special situations fund; and Rockwood Capital raised $964 million for a new private equity real estate fund.
More recently, Huntsman Gay Global Capital finalized its debut fund, locking down $1.1 billion.
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