ICG builds team for debut US fund

Intermediate Capital Group is working to put together its first US-focused private debt fund. As it works to launch the fund, the firm is building up its US team headed by former Blackstone mezzanine executive Sal Gentile.

It’s not clear how much ICG will target for the vehicle as the firm declined to comment. Sources in the market with knowledge of ICG’s plans said the fund has not yet been launched. Several sources who have had recent conversations with the firm said Gentile, who ICG officially announced hiring in December, is hiring additional people to work in the New York office, including an investor relations professional to help with the fundraising.

Gentile’s official title is managing director and head of North America. He formerly was a senior managing director with The Blackstone Group and co-founded the firm’s corporate debt group, which put together Blackstone’s mezzanine partners’ funds. The firm’s eponymously titled mezzanine funds were the precursor to its GSO Capital Partners’ debt-focused funds it launched after acquiring that team in 2008.

ICG, a UK-listed investment manager which specialises in mezzanine but has the flexibility to invest in all levels of the capital structure, recently closed its latest European mezzanine and senior equity fund. ICG announced in January that it had closed Europe V on the hard-cap of €2.5 billion about three months earlier than the firm anticipated. That vehicle included a more diverse mix of limited partners than the prior vehicle, including a third of LPs from Europe, a third from the US and a third from Asia. Fund IV’s LP base was made up of more than 80 percent European-based investors.

Fund V is already about a quarter deployed, having made three investments before the end of the year.

Research by Private Debt Investor published late last year showed that almost 200 private debt funds are in the market chasing some $124 billion.