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Genstar Capital

Company type	Private
Industry	Private Equity
Founded	1988; 36 years ago (1988)
Founder	Angus MacNaughton, Ross Turner, Richard D. Paterson, John A. West
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Key people	Jean-Pierre L. Conte (chairman, managing director), Ryan Clark (president and managing director), Rob Rutledge (managing director), Anthony Salewski (managing director), Eli Weiss (managing director)
Products	Leveraged buyout, Growth capital
AUM	US$49 billion (2023)
Number of employees	35+
Website	gencap.com

Genstar Capital is a private equity firm that executes leveraged buyout transactions in middle-market companies based in North America. Founded in 1988, Genstar currently has approximately $33 billion in assets under management.

Based in San Francisco, Genstar is focused on investing in financial services, software, industrial technology, and healthcare.

History

The firm's origins date back to Genstar Corporation, whose senior executives founded Genstar Capital in 1988. Genstar was a Canadian building-materials and financial-services company that invested $1.9 billion through 28 acquisitions from 1976 to 1986. Additionally, Genstar sold 40 businesses and entered into 75 joint ventures during this period. Genstar, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, was sold to Imasco, Ltd in 1986, at which point Genstar owned more than 100 businesses around the world. Following the sale of Genstar, a number of the company's executives formed a new investment partnership while, under Imasco's ownership, Genstar was broken up and divested through the late 1980s.

In March 1989, the newly independent firm raised a $100 million pool of capital to fund leveraged buyout transactions. Among the founders of what was then known as Genstar Capital Corp. (GCC) were Angus MacNaughton and Ross Turner, former chief executive officers of Genstar Corp., as well as Richard D. Paterson, previously senior vice president and chief financial officer, and John A. West, previously executive vice president of Genstar.

Through the mid-1990s, Genstar focused primarily on investments in industrial manufacturing companies. In 1995, J-P Conte joined the firm, and, through the second half of the 1990s, Genstar focused on investments in a group of growth sectors, including industrial technology and healthcare. President and managing director Ryan Clark, and managing directors Rob Rutledge, Anthony Salewski, and Eli Weiss joined in the 2000s. During this period, Genstar began to also invest in financial services and software. Today, the firm's core sectors are financial services, software, industrial technology, and healthcare.

In December 2019, Genstar Capital announced the successful completion of the sale of ECM Industries to Sentinel Capital Partners.

In 2020, Genstar Capital joined Diligent Corporation's Modern Leadership Initiative and pledged to create five new board roles among its portfolio companies for racially diverse candidates.

Investment funds

Genstar invests through a series of private equity funds, pools of committed capital from pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, fund of funds, high-net-worth individuals, sovereign wealth funds, and from other institutional investors. Genstar has raised approximately $17 billion of committed capital across nine investment funds since inception in 1988.

• 1989 – Fund I ($100 million)
• 1996 – Fund II ($115 million)
• 2000 – Fund III ($221 million)
• 2004 – Fund IV ($506 million)
• 2007 – Fund V ($1.6 billion)
• 2012 – Fund VI ($914 million)
• 2015 – Fund VII ($2 billion)
• 2017 – Fund VIII ($3.95 billion)
• 2019 – Fund IX ($7 billion)
• 2021 - Fund X ($11.7 billion)

References

1. About Genstar
2. Genstar Capital: About Us Archived March 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine (company website)
3. Imasco Seeking all of Genstar. The New York Times, April 12, 1986
4. Genstar Capital raises U.S. $100 Million for acquisitions in North America, Canada NewsWire, February 13, 1989
5. Genstar Capital Holds Final Closing on $221 Million of Committed Capital. Press Release, July 9, 2001
6. https://www.gencap.com/people/ Genstar People
7. https://www.gencap.com/companies/ Genstar Companies
8. "Genstar Capital Announces Sale of ECM Industries – Genstar Capital (Genstar Capital)". CompanyNewsHQ. December 23, 2019. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
9. "Genstar Capital Partners with Diligent on Board Diversity and Inclusion Initiative". Genstar Capital. June 26, 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
10. "Modern Governance Requires Modern Leadership". diligent.com. Archived from the original on August 17, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
11. Genstar Capital raises U.S. $100 Million for acquisitions in North America, Canada NewsWire, February 13, 1989
12. Genstar Capital Holds Final Closing on $221 Million of Committed Capital
13. Genstar closes fifth fund on $1.55bn. AltAssets, June 6, 2007
14. Genstar Capital Exceeds Target for Fund VII with $2.0 Billion of LP Capital Commitments
15. Genstar Capital Closes Fund VIII and Affiliated Funds with $3.95 Billion of Committed Capital
16. Genstar Capital Closes Fund IX and Affiliated Overage Fund with $7 Billion of Committed Capital
17. Genstar Capital Closes Fund X and Affiliated Opportunities Fund With $11.7 Billion of Committed Capital

• Private equity firms of the United States
• Financial services companies established in 1988