(New York, NY) — Cortec Group Management Services, LLC (“Cortec” or the “Firm”) is pleased to announce that on November 14, 2019 it held a first and final closing on its seventh institutional private equity fund, Cortec Group Fund VII, L.P. (“Cortec VII”) at its hard cap of $2.0 billion. Cortec placed Cortec VII fund with a combination of its existing limited partners and a select group of new investors. For the third consecutive fundraise, Cortec did not retain a placement agent. The members of the general partner of Cortec VII will commit approximately $90 million alongside of the limited partners’ $2.0 billion.
Cortec Group began raising Cortec VII in August 2019 with a $1.9 billion target and after slightly more than one month of investor due diligence meetings had received written commitments in excess of its hard cap. The vast majority of its prior limited partners returned to Cortec VII, while new investors included U.S. and international insurance companies, pension plans, high net worth families and endowments. It is noteworthy that nearly thirty current and former Cortec Group portfolio company senior executives committed nearly $35 million to Cortec VII and no single limited partner accounted for more than 5% of Cortec VII’s committed capital. “We are extremely gratified by the strong response we had to Cortec VII from both existing and new investors. We believe our talented and long-tenured leadership team, differentiated and difficult-to-replicate business model and consistent top quartile performance over the past 20 years helped drive the rapid close of Cortec Fund VII”, said Co-President Dave Schnadig.
Coincident with the first capital call of Cortec VII, the Firm promoted several executives to more senior positions. Jon Stein and Jeff Shannon, who have been with Cortec for nearly 20 years each, will join Mike Najjar as Managing Partners, while Bill Tucker, Doug Kruep, Rob Whipple and Ajay Chokshi will all be elevated to Partner from Managing Director. Earlier in 2019 Allie Klazkin, a ten-year Cortec team member, was promoted to Managing Director. Co-President Jeff Lipsitz said of these promotions, “We’re very proud of the continuing growth and evolution of our leadership team. We now have ten senior leaders plus our founder, Scott Schafler, who remains committed to Cortec VII, helping to add value to and grow entrepreneur-led, family-owned and other companies.”
Despite its larger size, Cortec VII will continue Cortec’s historically successful strategy of targeting platform acquisitions with $7-$35 million of LTM EBITDA, which it capitalizes with prudent leverage levels in order to fund growth, development and add-on acquisitions initiatives.
Cortec was assisted in the placement of Cortec VII by Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
About Cortec Group
Founded in 1984, Cortec invests in high value-added, middle-market specialty services, B2C and B2B products and healthcare businesses in partnership with owners and management teams who want to work with the Firm to drive growth and improve business fundamentals. Additional information about Cortec can be found at www.cortecgroup.com.
