American Securities vaults Fund VI target

American Securities has jumped its $3 billion target on its sixth fund, and is now eyeing $3.5 billion, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund was originally targeting $3 billion with a $4 billion hard-cap, sources told Private Equity International.

The firm had raised at least $3.24 billion as of 12 January, according to SEC documents. Credit Suisse Securities is an advisor on the fund, which one source characterised as being oversubscribed.

The firm had to write in a new target on SEC documents after it surpassed the $3 billion offering amount it had stated on previous SEC filings, the source said.

LPs in Fund VI include the El Paso Firemen and Policemen’s Pension Fund, the City of Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System, the Montana Board of Investments, the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana. 

Fund VI will maintain a similar strategy to American Securities’ previous funds, investing between $100 million and $500 million in US companies with revenues ranging from $100 million to $1 billion, according LA Fire and Police documents. The fund’s predecessor raised $2.3 billion in 2008 with a 25-year fund life.

Last year, affiliate American Securities Opportunities Fund closed its second vehicle on $753 million, surpassing its original $500 million target. The distressed fund focuses on public and private companies in distress “or trading at distressed levels due to deterioration in operating performance or anticipated liquidity problems”, the firm said in a statement.

American Securities bills itself as one of the oldest private equity firms in existence. The firm started out in 1947 as a family office investment shop founded by William Rosenwald, an heir to the Sears, Roebuck fortune. The firm did “bootstrap” investments that eventually came to be known as leveraged buyouts, according to its website.