Gryphon Investors, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, announced that it held a final closing of Gryphon Mezzanine Partners II, L.P. ("the Fund") at its cap, achieving $300 million of aggregate commitments. The Fund was oversubscribed and closed above its $225 million target with commitments from new and existing LPs.
This is Gryphon's second junior debt fund. The firm's first junior debt fund, Gryphon Mezzanine Partners, L.P., closed in August 2017 at its cap of $105 million. Gryphon has also raised six control private equity funds since 1997.
The Fund will participate on a minority basis in the junior debt financings of Gryphon portfolio companies, in all cases led by leading independent third-party lenders. The Fund will be managed by existing Gryphon professionals.
Gryphon founder and CEO David Andrews commented, "Our mezzanine strategy was initiated to satisfy the demand of a number of the firm's limited partners seeking attractive risk adjusted yields in the junior debt securities of Gryphon portfolio companies. We viewed this as an opportunity to add a complementary strategy to our primary strategy of control equity investing. We are pleased that the Fund has been well-received, both by existing investors and investors not previously invested in Gryphon funds. As always, we very much appreciate their enthusiastic support."
For the past 25 consecutive quarters, Gryphon has placed on Preqin's "Consistent Performers" quarterly North American buyout rankings for its private equity investing strategy. Gryphon's most recent private equity buyout fund, Gryphon Partners V, L.P., which closed in April 2019 with $2.1 billion in commitments, now includes eight portfolio company investments and is approximately 80% committed with the December close of Heartland Veterinary Partners.