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Law360 (March 27, 2020, 1:38 PM EDT ) Canadian private equity firm TorQuest Partners LLC said Friday that it has clinched its fifth flagship fund after securing CA$1.375 billion ($974.2 million) from limited partners, with plans to target middle market companies in North America.
The fund, called TorQuest Partners Fund V, was significantly oversubscribed, surpassed its original target of CA$1.1 billion, and closed at its hard cap, according to a statement. The investor base includes public and private pension plans, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, insurance companies and family offices.
Eric Berke, managing partner at TorQuest, said in the press release that "all of us at TorQuest very much appreciate the continued confidence our limited partners have shown in us."
"We do not take lightly their trust in us to be responsible stewards of their capital," Berke added. "Our tenured team, many of whom have worked together for over a decade, will continue to execute on a strategy that afforded us success over the past 20 years, solidifying our reputation as the partner of choice among business owners, entrepreneurs and management teams across Canada while delivering attractive investment returns to our limited partners."
The new fund will follow in the footsteps of previous TorQuest vehicles by investing in middle market companies that are privately or family-owned. The firm typically does deals that are meant to help with succession planning at companies, as well as recapitalization transactions, corporate carveouts and management buyouts, according to its website.
Brent Belzberg, senior managing partner at the firm, acknowledged in the press release that the closing comes at a strange time, with the coronavirus outbreak affecting people and businesses across the globe. However, like other private equity firms, TorQuest also sees potential opportunity through the haze of the crisis.
"Despite how pleased we are to announce today's closing of Fund V, we fully recognize the tremendous disruption and hardship the COVID-19 pandemic is causing for people across the world, including all of the health care and essential service workers who continue to put themselves in harm's way every day, and on the global economy," Belzberg said. "These are difficult times and we know there will be new challenges in the days ahead, but we are confident in the deep team we have built at TorQuest and our ability to deliver attractive returns for our limited partners, while remaining fully attuned to the health risk and challenges impacting all of us today."
TorQuest invests across a range of industries, with portfolio companies including British Columbia-based Prepac, which makes ready-to-assemble home furniture; Texas-based Maviro, which provides industrial services to North America's oil and gas, petrochemical, utilities and natural gas industries; and Alberta-based SCM Insurance Services, which provides outsourced services to the property and casualty insurance industry.
The closing of the new fund comes a few years after TorQuest clinched its previous fund, TorQuest Partners Fund IV, with CA$925 million in tow, according to a statement from the time.
Torys LLP acted as legal counsel for the new fund, with The Credit Suisse Private Fund Group serving as exclusive placement agent.
--Editing by Rebecca Flanagan.
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