Clearlake Capital Group closed its oversubscribed Clearlake Opportunities Partners III with more than $2.5 billion in investor commitments.
COP III is planning to further its strategy of investing in non-control special situations investments in leaning on the firm’s sector approach targeting investments in technology, industrial and consumer businesses.
Investors in the fund include: Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds; Alaska Permanent Fund; Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System; and Michigan Retirement Systems.
“With COP III, Clearlake has the ability to partner with attractive businesses looking for bespoke capital solutions, while providing our investors with a combination of capital preservation and attractive contractual yields, plus potential equity or equity-like upside,” said Jose Feliciano, co-founder and managing partner at Clearlake, in a statement. “This all-weather approach allows us to act nimbly during evolving market conditions, including taking advantage of periodic dislocations in the debt capital markets.”
The fund has the flexibility to invest across the capital structure in both equity, preferred equity and debt securities, allowing Clearlake to focus on opportunities where creativity and active sponsorship are rewarded, said Behdad Eghbali, co-founder and managing partner at Clearlake.
COP III has already led investments in AMCS, a global supplier of integrated cloud-based software and vehicle technology for the environmental, utilities, waste, recycling, and resource industries, and Chelsea Football Club, a professional football club that competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football. COP III led the Chelsea Football Club investment on behalf of Clearlake’s affiliated funds and other partners.
In May, Clearlake raised more than $14.1 billion for its seventh flagship private equity fund, Clearlake Capital Partners VII.
Total capital raised by Clearlake since January 2021 exceeds $27 billion, which includes COP III, Fund VII, the firm’s continuation and co-investment funds, and capital raised by WhiteStar Asset Management, LLC, the CLO, structured products and broadly syndicated credit arm of Clearlake.
