On Tuesday, middle-market private equity firm Oak Hill Capital—a rising investor in U.S. telecom infrastructure—announced the successful close of its fifth fund, Oak Hill Capital Partners V (“OHCP V”) at approximately $3.8 billion. According to a company announcement, OHCP V was significantly oversubscribed, surpassing its target of $3.0 billion and exceeding its predecessor fund, OHCP IV by over 40 percent.
Additionally, OHCP V represents the largest amount of third-party capital that Oak Hill has ever raised in its 35-year history.
In a statement, Oak Hill CEO & Managing Partner Tyler Wolfram said, “We are grateful for our Limited Partners’ confidence, trust and conviction in our team and investment strategy. We are especially pleased to note that over 90 percent of OHCP IV’s interests re-upped into OHCP V.
“We appreciate the continued support from our existing investor base and are pleased to welcome our new investors to the Oak Hill family. We have constructed a global and diverse investor base for OHCP V, including more than 100 institutional limited partners from 25 countries, representing leading endowments and foundations, public and corporate pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, financial institutions, consultants, and family offices.”
Per its announcement, Oak Hill will continue to target control-oriented private equity investments of $100 million to $400 million in middle-market companies primarily in North America, focused strategically in the services, industrials, media and communications, and consumer industries. OHCP V is already over 40 percent committed with six platform investments to date. These include the Colorado-headquartered, nationwide wealth management firm Mercer Global Advisors, along with a number of U.S. fiber and telecommunication infrastructure providers that Oak Hill has targeted of late, investing heavily to advance technology deployments in order to support the provision of gigabit-speed data services, including Indiana’s Metronet Holdings, Future Fiber Holdings, and California internet services provider Race Communications.
In December, Oak Hill Capital exited a co-investment in South Dakota broadband, video and phone service provider Vast Broadband, selling the firm to GI Partners, a San Francisco-based investor in global private equity, real estate and data infrastructure businesses.
And last summer, Oak Hill Capital acquired listed telecom services provider Otelco Inc., which provides wireless services to the U.S. states of Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Vermont and West Virginia.
Oak Hill Capital currently manages funds with over $16 billion of initial capital commitments and co-investments since the company’s inception in 1986. Since that time, Oak Capital has invested in around 100 private equity transactions across broad segments of the U.S. and global economies.
