Clarion beats its Fund IV soft cap with $677 million of new capital
The Wall Street Journal: Clarion Banks $677 Million to Make Digital Transformation Bets
Clarion Capital Partners has amassed $677 million for a new fund to back midmarket businesses such as healthcare services providers, media content distributors and payment systems developers, as the private-equity firm sees opportunities in the digital technology-driven transformation of those industries.
New York-based Clarion wrapped up its latest buyout fund, Clarion Investors IV, with 59% more capital than the $427 million it raised for a predecessor vehicle it closed in 2017. The older fund made its final investment in February, backing Narrative Strategies, a corporate communications firm in Washington, said Marc Utay, Clarion’s managing partner.
The firm isn’t changing its strategy after raising a larger fund—the new pool just provides capital that is more proportionate to the increased number of partners who lead deals, said David Ragins, who was recently promoted to the new position of president of private equity at Clarion.
“When we launched Fund III, there were four fully formed partners who could invest and, as we walk into Fund IV, we have seven,” Ragins said. “We probably could have raised a lot more money, but it was more about sizing the fund consistently with our strategy and really letting the number of partners and their investing capacity dictate how big a fund we wanted.”
The firm plans to invest $50 million to $55 million per deal on average from the new fund, Ragins said. Prior to his promotion, he oversaw deals in the media, entertainment and technology sectors.
Read the full Wall Street Journal article here.
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