Paul Capital raises $309M

Paul Capital has raised $309 million toward its third fund targeting investments in the health care industry, according to a regulatory filing.

The San Francisco-based firm started raising Paul Capital Healthcare III in November 2006. It is now nearly halfway to its $650 million target, with commitments from 37 investors. Its prior vehicle raised $656 million in 2003. Before that, its first fund raised $300 million in 2000.

The firm declined to comment.

Despite what looks like slow going for its third fund, Paul Capital has had decent success in the fund-raising market recently, meeting the $455 million target for its fourth private equity fund of funds earlier this year. Top Tier II, a 2002 vintage fund, has posted a 1.1x return on CPP Investment Board’s $96 million commitment, according to CPPIB documents.

That’s in addition to a new secondaries fund that Paul Capital raised last year.

In December, the firm hired Sabina Sammartino as principal and promoted Elizabeth Coleon and Guillaume Partiot each to principal on its secondaries team. Six months earlier, the firm added consultant Duncan Littlejohn full time to its secondaries team as managing director and hired Lucian Wu to head it’s Asia office as managing director.

Paul closed its largest ever secondary fund—a $1.65 billion pool—in May of 2008. That fund brought the firm’s total secondary funds under management to $4.2 billion. —Erin Griffith