Juggernaut holds final Fund III close on $380 mln

Juggernaut Capital Partners closed its third flagship on $380 million, surpassing its target by $30 million, the firm told Buyouts.

“We had a very positive fundraising effort altogether,” founder and Managing Partner John Shulman told Buyouts. “Clearly, anytime you exceed the target it’s a successful pursuit.”

The firm spent roughly a year marketing Fund III to new investors after holding a first close for existing limited partners in the first quarter of 2015, Shulman told Buyouts. About a third of Fund III’s LPs are investing with Juggernaut for the first time.

Fund III’s mix of 25 U.S. and European investors includes public pensions, family offices, funds of funds and insurers.

Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association committed $100 million to the fund. Goldman Sachs, the sole LP of Juggernaut’s $42 million first fund, committed $20 million to Fund III, according to LACERA documents.

Juggernaut’s second fund, a $218 million 2012 vintage fund, was delivering a 1.16x multiple and 10 percent internal rate of return as of Sept. 30, according to LACERA documents. LACERA committed $75 million to Fund II.

Shulman founded Juggernaut in early 2009 after leaving Allied Capital Corp. He was later joined by former colleagues Craig Hille and Chuck Dieveney, who are now managing directors at the Chevy Chase, Maryland, firm.

Juggernaut’s roster of former Allied professionals also includes Principal Alex Deegan, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Kuntz and Vice President Benton Lee.

Juggernaut invests in mid-market business-services and consumer- products companies. The firm completed its final two investments through Fund II last year, acquiring Integrated Beverage Group, which develops and markets alcoholic-beverage brands, as well as a stake in educational-services platform Catapult Learning.

More recently, Juggernaut agreed to acquire Mitchell & Ness, a clothing brand best known for its snap-back ballcaps and sports apparel, from adidas. The firm expects to finalize the deal in the second quarter, according to a press release.

Juggernaut has completed five investments out of Fund III to date, Shulman said.

“For 15 years, be it at Juggernaut or our previous firm, we’ve had fundamentally the same strategy,” Shulman told Buyouts. “Mitchell & Ness, as an example, looks very similar to another company in Juggernaut I, Amerex Group, which has been a very big success.”

Juggernaut recently delivered a partial return on an $18 million growth-equity investment in Voss. Reignwood Group acquired a more than 50 percent stake in the bottled-water company for $105 million in January, The Wall Street Journal reported. Juggernaut maintained a significant minority stake in Voss and Shulman stayed on as its chairman.

Action Item: More about Juggernaut: www.juggernautcap.com

Photo: A portrait of Benjamin Franklin on a U.S. $100 bill is pictured at Interbank Inc. money exchange in Tokyo, in this September 9, 2010 picture illustration. Reuters/Yuriko Nakao