Mangrove Equity Partners is pleased to announce the first and final closing of our latest fund, MEP II. Our formal fund raising process for this $125MM equity fund was quick, requiring only a few months to complete. Virtually all of our existing limited partners invested in MEP II. Due to our good fortune in MEP I, we enjoyed the reward of there being significantly more interest in the fund than there was room.
Mangrove remained disciplined in terms of sticking to our stated fund size to ensure that we can continue to invest in attractive smaller companies. We are also proud of the venerable family offices, university endowments, and fund of funds institutions who chose to invest for the first time in the Mangrove team. This expedited fund raise evidences Mangrove’s strong and consistent performance on behalf of our limited partners, portfolio company owner/operators, and portfolio company employees.
In anticipation of our increased investment pace for MEP II, the Mangrove team has grown to include Whit Webster, Chris Dinu, and most recently, Mark Danzi (starting in September) and Andrew Winner, bringing the Mangrove team to 11 professionals. We continue to invest in lower middle market companies in the U.S. and Canada earning between $2 million and $10 million of EBITDA. Areas of particular interest are industrial manufacturers, industrial service companies, and consumer product manufacturers.
Mangrove is a rarity in the lower middle market, given our three-man internal operating team with meaningful equity in the firm. They afford Mangrove the ability to be materially helpful to portfolio company owner/operators in optimizing profit, growth and value, creating greater stability and opportunity for portfolio company managers and employees.
We hope to have the pleasure of working closely with you.