CHICAGO – Asset manager Forstmann-Leff International, Inc. was in search of a new client when it knocked on the door of Hughes Electronics’ pension management group. Instead, the firm ended up with a new director. Celia Chapman was slated to join Forstmann-Leff in December after 17 years at Southern California’s Hughes Investment Management Co. Ms. […]

NEW YORK – Responding to the growing appetite of private equity buyers for later-stage private and public companies, Bear, Stearns & Co. hired Peter Buckley and David Goddard as senior managing directors and co-heads of the newly formed private equity group. “This is a model that a number of larger firms have seen is essential […]

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Benchmark Capital in late October added former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Reed Hundt as a venture partner. Mr. Hundt, who will be based in suburban Washington, D.C., will work for the firm on a part-time basis helping evaluate deals and taking board seats, said General Partner Andy Rachleff. Mr. Hundt […]

TEL AVIV, Israel – GE Capital’s Equity Capital Group (ECG) in October appointed director Sam Cubac to head the group’s new office in Tel Aviv. ECG made its first foray into the Israeli market in 1997 with a $20 million joint venture with the ABS GE Capital Giza Fund, a high-technology vehicle founded in partnership […]

LONDON – Phildrew Ventures expected a first closing on its fifth and largest fund in late 1998. With a target of GBP300 million ($495 million), the Phildrew Ventures Fifth Fund is nearly double the size of its predecessor, which raised GBP164 million ($271 million) in 1995. Phildrew, however, will need to raise only GBP150 million […]

SAN FRANCISCO/TEL AVIV, Israel – Eager to begin investing its oversubscribed $55 million vehicle, Eucalyptus Ventures recently held a final close on its first fund, which focuses on early-stage, Israeli-related technology and health-care companies. “You can fund raise forever,” said Bruce Crocker, a managing director of the vehicle, which was created in 1997 and is […]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Chisholm Fund Partners, Fleet Equity Partners’ new fund-of-funds for individuals and small institutional clients, in November held a $20 million initial close as it eyed a final wrap in December. Launched in April 1998, Chisholm Fund Partners’ strategy is a departure from the $35 million Chisholm Partners III and its predecessors. The […]

BLOOMINGTON, Minn./SAN FRANCISCO – St. Paul Venture Capital Inc. this fall created three more satellite funds based in Minnesota, Southern California, Pennsylvania and San Francisco. The medically focused vehicles, managed by investment professionals well known to St. Paul, give the venture firm access to very early-stage and very niched opportunities. (VCJ, December 1998, page 6). […]

SANTA FE, N.M. – Vestor Partners saw a final close in mid-October that raked in $55 million on its debut buyout fund, said David Chase, a managing general director at the firm. The fund is unusual in that its 75 limited partners are comprised only of wealthy individuals. Commitments to the fund ranged in size […]

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Valley Ventures II reached a $20 million first close just before Thanksgiving and is slated for a first-quarter wrap on or near its $35 million target. The two-partner firm will back early and later-stage companies in the Southwestern United States, including health-care businesses (VCJ, November 1998, page 21). Valley Ventures, the first […]