Kelso & Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Company type | Publicly traded company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Private Equity |
| Founded | 1971 |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, United States |
Key people | Phil Berney (co-CEO) Frank Loverro (co-CEO) Frank Nickell (chairman) |
| Products | Private equity funds, Leveraged buyouts, Recapitalizations, Growth capital |
| AUM | $11.2 billion |
| Website | www.kelso.com |
Kelso & Company is an American private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capital transactions. Kelso invests in a variety of sectors, including communication, manufacturing and restaurants. Kelso is based in New York City.
Kelso also provides mezzanine capital through a joint venture with asset management firm BlackRock. Their joint venture, BlackRock Kelso Capital Corp. (Nasdaq: BKCC), is organized as a type of publicly traded private equity company known as a Business Development Company.
Founded in 1971 as Kelso Bangert & Company, the firm acted as both an advisor and merchant bank, both making investments and advising on mergers and acquisitions. Kelso was founded by Louis O. Kelso, a lawyer and economist who is given credit for developing the concept for employee stock ownership plans, in 1956. Kelso, alongside a sister company Louis O. Kelso Inc., focused initially on M&A activity involving Employee Stock Ownership Plans.[1]
Kelso raised its first private equity fund and has had a dedicated private equity investment platform since 1980. Louis O. Kelso, who died in 1991, transitioned management of the firm to Joseph Schuchert to focus on writing and lecturing.[1][2]
In June 2016, Kelso closed its latest fund at $2.6 billion.[3]