Metalmark Capital, formerly Morgan Stanley Capital Partners is a

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including lev ...

focused on

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...

investments in

middle-market companies Authorities provide differing definitions of the middle-market or mid-market companies. While some authorities look to revenue generated by companies to define the middle market, other sources regard either asset size or number of employees as a be ...

across a range of industries. Metalmark was acquired by Citigroup Alternative Investments in December 2007. The firm, which is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, traces its roots back to 1985. Metalmark was founded as an independent firm in 2004. The firm has raised approximately $8.5 billion since inception across four funds at Morgan Stanley and one fund raised since the firm's spinout.

History

From 1985 to 2004, Morgan Stanley Capital Partners invested over $7 billion through four funds. Morgan Stanley Leveraged Equity Fund I was raised in 1985 followed two years later by Morgan Stanley Leveraged Equity Fund II, which was raised in 1987 with $2.2 billion of investor commitments. In 1991, the group raised $1.87 billion of investor commitments for Morgan Stanley Capital Partners III. The most recent fund, Morgan Stanley Capital Partners IV was raised in 1999 with total commitments of $3.3 billion. In 2004, the Morgan Stanley Capital Partners team began preparations to separate itself from

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

. The spinout of MSCP came at the same time as the spinouts of private equity groups from other leading investment banks including:

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...

(

CCMP Capital CCMP Capital is an American private equity investment firm that focuses on leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions. Formerly known as JP Morgan Partners, the investment professionals of JP Morgan Partners separated from JPMorgan Chase o ...

), Citigroup ( Court Square Capital Partners), Deutsche Bank ( MidOcean Partners) and

Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse Group in 1988 ...

(

Avista Capital Partners Avista Capital Partners is an American private equity firm headquartered in New York City focused on growth capital and leveraged buyout investments in middle-market companies in the domestic healthcare sector. History The firm was founded in 2 ...

, Diamond Castle Holdings). In December 2007, Metalmark was acquired by Citigroup Alternative Investments as one of a series of investments in

merchant banking A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commod ...

and

hedge funds A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...

by the bank's CEO Vikram Pandit. Citigroup's middle market private equity group,

CVC Equity Partners Court Square Capital Partners is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions. Court Square was originally a captive private equity firm within Citigroup known as Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners. Court Square's inv ...

had completed a spinout from Citigroup in 2006 to form Court Square Capital Partners. Citigroup disposed of its remaining interest in Court Square following the purchase of Metalmark.Kreutzer, Laura.
Citigroup shutting down VC arm after Metalmark buy
" DowJones Private Equity News, May 29, 2008

References

External links

Metalmark Capital
(company website) {{Merchant banking private equity groups American companies established in 1985 Hedge fund firms in New York City Investment companies based in New York City Private equity firms of the United States Financial services companies established in 1985 Investment banking private equity groups 1985 establishments in New York (state) Morgan Stanley