Kelso & Company

Kelso & Company

Type	Private Ownership
Industry	Private Equity
Founded	1971
Headquarters	New York City, New York, United States
Products	Private equity funds, Leveraged buyouts, Recapitalizations, Growth capital
Total assets	$11.2 billion
Website	www.kelso.com

Kelso & Company is a private equity investment firm focusing on leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capital transactions. Kelso invests in a variety of sectors, including communication, manufacturing and restaurants. Kelso is based in New York City.

Kelso also provides mezzanine capital through a joint venture with asset management firm BlackRock. Their joint venture, BlackRock Kelso Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: BKCC), is organized as a type of publicly traded private equity company known as a Business Development Company.

History

Originally founded in 1971 as Kelso Bangert & Company, the firm acted as both an advisor and merchant bank, both making investments and advising in mergers and acquisitions. Kelso was founded by Louis O. Kelso, a lawyer and economist who is given credit for developing the concept for employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), in 1956. Kelso, alongside a sister company Louis O. Kelso Inc., focused initially on M&A activity involving Employee Stock Ownership Plans.^[1]

Kelso raised its first private equity fund and has had a dedicated private equity investment platform since 1980. Louis O. Kelso who died in 1991 transitioned management of the firm to Joseph Schuchert to focus on writing and lecturing.^[1]^[2] Today the firm is headed by Frank T. Nickell who joined the firm in 1977.

Investments

Since 1980, the firm has raised approximately $10.1 billion of investor commitments to its private equity funds and was among the 50 largest private equity firms globally. Since its inception, the firm has made investments in over 90 companies representing more than $31 billion of aggregate purchase price.

Kelso & Company has invested in energy, materials, retailing, industrial and consumer products, telecommunication services, financial services, and healthcare sectors.^[3] The company typically invests in North America with a focus on the United States. It targets investing between $50 million and $600 million in firms that have a value of between $250 million and $2.5 billion.^[3]

References

1 2 "Louis O. Kelso, Who Advocated Worker-Capitalism, Is Dead at 77." New York Times, February 21, 1991.
↑ "Standard Endorses Kelso Bid." New York Times, March 18, 1988.
1 2 "Kelso & Company: Private Company Information - Businessweek". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-06-14.

External links

Kelso & Company (company website)
Blackrock-Kelso Capital Corp. (company website)

Private equity and venture capital investment firms

Investment strategy	Venture Growth Mezzanine Secondaries Leveraged buyout

History	History of private equity and venture capital Early history of private equity Private equity in the 1980s Private equity in the 1990s Private equity in the 2000s

Investors	Angel investor Corporate venture capital Commercial bank Crowdfunding Institutional investor Insurance company Investment bank Endowment Family office Fund of funds High-net-worth individual Merchant bank Pension fund Sovereign wealth fund

Private equity firms Venture capital firms Portfolio companies

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