Pearl Energy closes debut fund on $500M hard-cap

 Pearl Energy Investments has closed its debut mid-market fund on its hard cap of $500 million.

Investors in the new fund were largely comprised of endowments, foundations, and a few pension systems, Pearl Energy managing partner William Quinn told Private Equity International.

“We think the next 12 to 24 months could be a very good time to make some acquisitions and back some high quality management teams to pursue acquisition strategies in North America and Canada,” Quinn said.

The fund will seek to invest $25 million to $75 million in smaller to mid-sized energy exploration and production, midstream and related service businesses located in the west Texas, northern Louisiana and Calgary among other geographies. The fund will have a typical hold period of four to five years.

“We’ll look to borrow from two to three times leverage in conservatively-structured loans when make our investments and make sure that we have a plan in place to pay down debt rapidly,” Quinn added.

Pearl Energy follows Ridgewood Energy that closed its Oil and Gas Fund III in July at $1.9 billion. that fund targets investments of $50 million to $100 million in oil drilling and production projects in the deep water off the Gulf of Mexico, as reported by PEI.