Saturday, August 3, 2013

Steve Young's team hits mark on first 1.1B fund

Steve Young's team hits mark on first $1.1B fund



Private equity firm HGGC, co-founded by ex-49er Steve Young (left) and Rich Lawson, passed a milestone with this week's completion of the sale of Hybris to SAP. It has now returned all $1.1 billion of its debut fund it raised in 2009, still has eight investments in its portfolio and has a little money left to invest from it.
Senior Technology Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal
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HGGC, the Palo Alto private equity firm co-founded by ex-San Francisco 49er quarterback Steve Young, hit a significant milestone this week with its fifth sale of a portfolio company.
The firm formerly known as Huntsman Gay Global Capital has now returned all of the $1.1 billion raised in 2009. That puts it in a great position with eight investments made by the fund still in hand, co-founder and Managing Partner Rich Lawson told me Friday morning.
"This says to me that our strategy of working with closely held, intensely private companies with global aspirations is working," Lawson said.
The deal that brought HGGC to the break-even point on its debut fund was the sale of Hybris, a maker of online logistics-management software based in Switzerland, to SAP AG for what is reported to be between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. The terms were not officially disclosed.
The deal follows follows the sales of Sunquest Information Systems for $1.4 billion and Power Holdings for $380 million in 2012, Grand Isle Shipyard in 2011 and Turner Brothers before that.
HGGC two months ago bought its 13th company, Vermont-based MyWebGrocer, in June and Lawson told me the firm is in talks now on another deal for an undisclosed company from the original fund.
"We committed a little less than $1 billion of the $1.1 billion we raised, so we still have money to invest, but we have now returned all of the original money raised," he said.
The typical investment is between $75 million and $125 million, although Lawson said there have sometimes been much smaller initial investments in the $30 million range.
He also said the amount invested in the portfolio companies is actually quite a bit higher than $1 billion.
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Cromwell Schubarth is the Senior Technology Reporter at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1823.

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