New Mountain Capital Closes on $15.4 Billion for New Mountain Partners VII

• Growth-oriented firm raises $15.4 billion for private equity fund focused on control and control-oriented investments
• $14 billion “hard cap” reached from its Limited Partners: Investors include approximately 400 institutions, nearly 100 of which are new investors to New Mountain; fund was oversubscribed
• $1.4 billion GP commitment from over 130 internal team members
• New Mountain is dedicated to “building great businesses” within carefully selected acyclical growth sectors, focusing on the middle market
• Over $85 billion of enterprise value created for all shareholders since firm’s inception, with no PE bankruptcies or missed interest payments
• Firm’s total assets under management are now nearly $55 billion, with a team of 250 professionals, across four strategies: private equity, strategic equity, credit and net lease

New Mountain Capital, LLC (“New Mountain”), a leading growth-oriented alternative investment firm headquartered in New York, announced the $15.4 billion closing of its seventh control/control-oriented fund, New Mountain Partners VII, L.P. and its related vehicles (collectively, “Fund VII” or the “Fund”). New Mountain describes itself as “a business that builds businesses,” and has generated over $85 billion of enterprise value gains in its private equity companies since the firm’s inception, without one PE bankruptcy or missed interest payment.

Investor demand for Fund VII substantially exceeded the Fund’s supply, and the Fund closed at its “hard cap” amount of $14.0 billion of Limited Partner commitments, plus approximately $1.4 billion of General Partner commitments. This was the firm’s largest General Partner commitment to date and exceeded the contractual amount by more than 2x.

New Mountain’s previous flagship fund, Fund VI, was also oversubscribed and closed with approximately $9.6 billion of commitments in 2020. That fund is now fully invested in platform companies, with the remaining capital reserved for follow-on growth investments.

Investors in Fund VII include approximately 400 of the world’s leading pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, foundations, endowments, family offices, RIAs, and high net worth individuals, among others. In addition, the General Partner is itself the largest investor in the Fund, representing strong GP/LP alignment. The vast majority of Fund VI investors returned as investors for Fund VII, and the firm also added approximately 100 new investors globally.

“We thank our Limited Partners for their friendship and support,” said Steve Klinsky, Founder and CEO of New Mountain. “Since our founding nearly 25 years ago, New Mountain has sought to consistently ‘build great businesses’ in carefully chosen acyclical growth sectors. We are proud of the firm and team we have built, as we seek to build and improve businesses across market cycles. We strive to continuously improve in the years ahead.”

Consistent Execution of Strategy

Fund VII intends to continue to pursue New Mountain’s long-standing strategy emphasizing non-cyclical growth and business building for companies in carefully chosen “defensive growth” industries. New Mountain proactively develops operational expertise in these targeted, acyclical sectors through deep, fundamental research, resulting in what the firm believes are differentiated sourcing and value creation capabilities. It seeks to combine financial skills with operational and strategic skills at every step of the process, and primarily invests in “middle market” businesses.

Specific areas of focus for the firm, and Fund VII, include life sciences and advanced materials, healthcare technologies, advanced data and analytics, infrastructure services, digital transformation services, software, financial and insurance services, technology enabled business services, “future of work” enterprises, and others.

Fund VII has already acquired two companies ahead of its final close. These investments are Consor Holdings, a leading provider of transportation and waste water engineering, and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC, a leading US accounting, tax and advisory firm.

“New Mountain will continue to execute on our strategy of being a top ‘specialist’ in market niches we proactively select for investment,” said Matt Holt, Managing Director and President, Private Equity. “Our team intends to continue executing, refining and systemizing our approach to identifying and backing market leading platform companies with world class leadership teams in their respective sectors.”

“New Mountain has continued to focus on growing our team to support business building and value creation, which are core tenets of our strategy,” said Adam Weinstein, Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer and CFO. “We have also continued to scale and strengthen our internal systems and processes and build what we believe is a best in class non-investment team including compliance, finance and operations.”

New Mountain strives to be consistently successful through all market cycles and has had a strong period of results even during the challenging macro environment of recent years. Key recent events include:

• Since January 2021, New Mountain has exited roughly 20 companies. It has deployed nearly $10 billion in approximately 30 new platform and add-on acquisitions. The firm’s investment pace has remained steady and predictable. Realizations have outpaced deployment and have been consistent over the same period.
• Based on the firm’s last “social dashboard," as of December 31, 2023, New Mountain had added or created over 72,000 jobs at its private equity companies net of any job losses, with a median income of ~76% above the national average individual median income. In addition, these companies invested $8.3 billion in R&D, software development, and capital expenditures, and generated over $85 billion of enterprise value gains for all shareholders. In addition, work force members at NMC companies (not counting the C-suite and boards) received over $1.3 billion of equity gains, on companies sold since 2018.

Continued Investment in NMC Team and Client Service

New Mountain’s team has grown to over 250 investment professionals and staff with 20 private equity transaction leaders, and approximately 40 Operating Partners and Senior Advisors/Project Partners on its masthead, plus approximately 55 operating executives (Executive Advisory Council members) that are in addition to the team count.

New Mountain has also significantly expanded its local coverage supporting investors and consultants in different regions around the world. The firm has expanded its London office and recently opened offices in Tokyo and Los Angeles. New Mountain has also sought to continuously build its own investment team, operating partner team, internal compliance, accounting, and operational team in a similar way.

“We thank our investors for their outstanding support of New Mountain, even in the face of a severely capital constrained period for the private equity industry,” said David Coquillette, Managing Director and Head of Business Development. “We look forward to working closely with our limited partners in the years ahead.”

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett serves as legal advisor for the Fund.

About New Mountain Capital

New Mountain Capital is a New York-based investment firm that emphasizes business building and growth, rather than excessive risk, as it pursues long-term capital appreciation. The firm currently manages private equity, strategic equity, credit, and net lease real estate funds with nearly $55 billion in assets under management. New Mountain seeks out what it believes to be the highest quality growth leaders in carefully selected industry sectors and then works intensively with management to build the value of these companies. For more information, visit: www.newmountaincapital.com.

Under no circumstances does the information contained herein constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or interest in an investment vehicle managed by New Mountain Capital. Any such offer or solicitation can only be made through a definitive private placement memorandum describing the terms and risks of an investment to sophisticated persons who meet certain qualifications under the federal securities laws and are capable of evaluating the merits and risks of the investment. Nothing presented herein is intended to constitute investment advice, and no investment decision should be made based on any information provided herein. It should not be assumed that an investment will be profitable or that the performance of any particular investment will equal its past performance. No guarantee of investment performance is being provided and no inference to the contrary should be made. There is a risk of loss from an investment in securities, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

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