Bernard Vaughan

The ever-prolific Riverside Company is expecting a flurry of deal activity by year end, according to Co-CEO Béla Szigethy. Szigethy told Buyouts in an interview for an unrelated story that the firm expects to buy up to six new platform companies and put around $200 million of equity to work by year end.

Looking for return data? We have return data. Or rather, we have links to return data. Click "read more" below to get links to return data from nine pensions. The editorial team of sister publication Buyouts Magazine has been hard at work compiling all these numbers into a spreadsheet for our annual look at industry returns. Altogether our database has 443 U.S. and international buyout funds and turnaround/distressed funds spanning vintage years 1981 to 2005. Of those, we have investment multiples for 366 of them. And the quartile dividing lines? These probably won't come as a big surprise for dedicated students of industry performance. It takes an investment multiple of 2 to crach the top quartile, 1.5 is median and 1.2 marks the bottom quartile.

As Steve Rattner reportedly continues to negotiate with authorities over his alleged role in a pay-to-play scandal, executives at the firm he helped establish, Quadrangle Group LLC, are zeroing in on three options for their future. These include staying independent; selling to a private firm or partnering with one; or establishing a captive fund with a major corporation or wealthy family. The firm is most likely to remain independent and continue to manage its investments, according to a source with direct knowledge of the options the firm is debating. Quadrangle would not likely make new investments or raise a new fund any time soon, although it could eventually, depending on how its most recent fund performs.

Erik Hirsch said the difficult fundraising environment isn't deterring fund managers trying to raise more capital. The chief investment officer of Hamilton Lane Advisors told attendees of the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst Conference on Tuesday that the Bala Cynwyd, Pa.-based asset management firm received no less than 610 private placement memos in 2009. This year, he expects more than 500, but not quite as many as in 2009. Hirsch was discussing the numbers in the context of whether private equity as an asset class is in decline. "It's expensive, it's illiquid and it doesn't beat the public markets," Hirsch said of the industry's negative side. He added that, in the aggregate, private equity is a "lousy asset class." Nonetheless, top-performing funds that beat the public markets are what keep investors like Hamilton Lane, which has more than $88 billion of assets under management and supervision, engaged and fund managers hopeful. The number of firms trying to raise capital is indicative of that, he said. "That, to me, is not an asset class that is in decline," said Hirsch, who also argued that there should be standard industry benchmarks to grade fund performance.

Geneva Glen Capital LLC is officially launching today. Led by Adam Schecter and Jeff Gonyo, who were former executives with WHI Capital Partners and Wind Point Partners, respectively, Geneva Glen will invest as much as $40 million in companies generating $3 million to $20 million in EBITDA; sectors of interest include as business services, consumer services, consumer products, food and niche manufacturing. Buyouts first broke the news about the firm earlier this month as part of a wider story on spin-outs.

Atlantic Street Capital Management is in talks to sell Orlando-based delivery services company Fleetgistics to St. Louis-based buyout shop Harbour Group, according to a regulatory filing. Fleetgistics has three divisions: Medifleet, which provides same-day delivery services to hospitals, laboratories and other medical-related institutions; Partsfleet, which delivers automotive parts and other supplies; and Scriptfleet, which provides delivery services for long-term care pharmacies.

The Jordan Company LP has bought Zest Anchors Inc., an Escondido, Calif.-based company that makes attachments used to secure dentures and other dental implants, according to Paul Zuest, the president of the company. Jordan Company purchased a majority stake while Zuest and other shareholders will retain a 25 percent stake. Zuest declined to discuss how large the investment was and executives at Jordan Company declined to comment. Equity for the investment will come out of The Resolute Fund II LP, according to a regulatory filing. The New York-based shop closed the $3.6 billion fund in February 2008.

Trilantic Capital Partners is close to inking its first platform acquisition since spinning out of Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking. Executives at the New York-based shop expect to buy MicroStar Logistics, a company that helps breweries manage their kegs, from Macquarie Group Ltd., according to a regulatory filing and two sources with knowledge of the deal. […]

Linsalata Capital Partners is hungry to expand its holdings in the food industry. Executives at that firm are in talks to buy Eatem Corporation, a Vineland, N.J.-based company that makes bases and concentrates used in soups and other food products, according to a regulatory filing. If the deal proceeds, the Mayfield Heights, Ohio-based buyout shop […]

Executives at Resource Capital Funds, a Denver-based firm that invests in mining companies, expect to close their fifth fund at $1 billion in the first quarter of 2010, a source familiar with the firm’s plans told Buyouts. At $1 billion the fund would be notable for its generous size, achieved in a stingy fundraising market, […]