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Clearlake Capital Closes its Largest Fund at $3.6 Billion

Santa Monica, Calif.-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group has announced the close of its latest fund, Clearlake Capital Partners V. With over $3.6 billion in commitments, the fund has reached its hard cap and reflects a more than 100% increase in the size of its predecessor fund, Clearlake Partners IV, which closed in 2015 at $1.4 billion.

With its fifth fund, which was originally targeted at $2.5 billion, the middle-market private equity firm is expected to make opportunistic debt and equity investments in North America. Clearlake is targeting companies with enterprise values between $100 million and $1.5 billion, and foresees making about 15 to 20 core transactions from the new fund.

Investors in the latest fund amount to over 150 from more than 25 countries across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Institutional investors include corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, foundations, endowments and family offices. Backers include the $349.3 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the $146 billion Texas Teacher Retirement System and the $64.5 billion Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., among others.

“We are thankful and humbled by the opportunity to prudently invest on behalf of our prominent and expanding base of global Limited Partners,” stated Clearlake co-founder and managing partner José Feliciano. “We believe that the interest in Fund V is an acknowledgment of Clearlake's superior track record and strategy. Clearlake brings deep industry knowledge and relationships, access to capital, and a flexible investment mandate to our partner management teams in our target sectors: industrials and energy, software and technology-enabled services, and consumer.”

The firm has invested more than $1 billion of capital out of its fourth fund, returning nearly 70% to investors. As of the end of 2017, Clearlake III and Clearlake IV had net internal rate of returns at 39% and 33% respectively, according to fund marketing material viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Feliciano indicated that Clearlake has made five investments financed from its latest fund, including a deal earlier in March, wherein the private equity firm acquired medical documentation and order management software provider Provation Medical Inc.

Since its launch in 2006, Clearlake has raised over $7 billion.