NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Star Mountain Capital, LLC ("Star Mountain"), a specialized investment manager, with ~$2 billion in assets under management, focused exclusively on investing in private small and medium-sized businesses (lower middle-market), is pleased to announce that it has closed a $225 million asset-based leverage facility from top quality institutional investors led by ING Capital LLC (“ING”). The lending group consists of ING, CIT, TIAA Bank, Axos Bank, East West Bank, Georgia Banking Company and Customers Bank. This leverage facility for Star Mountain’s Strategic Credit Income Fund 3 provides additional capital to make value-added debt and equity investments in established U.S. small and medium-size businesses that generally have between $15 million and $250 million in annual revenues.
“We are delighted to have attracted such a high caliber group of new and existing bank relationships as partners into our third flagship value-added direct lending fund,” said Brett Hickey, Star Mountain Capital Founder & CEO. “We were pleased with the strong demand to support our strategic private lending business,” said Stephen Paras, Star Mountain Chief Credit Officer and former Head of Merrill Lynch leveraged loan capital markets who has underwritten over $50 billion in event driven financings across multiple cycles.
"We, together with our lending partners, are excited about the launch of this partnership with Star Mountain,” said Patrick Frisch, Head of Fund Finance Americas at ING. "We look forward to supporting the continued growth of their business and to furthering our relationship with the Star Mountain Capital team.”
Star Mountain was advised by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), a Stifel Company. Legal representation for Star Mountain was performed by Lowenstein Sandler LLP, a 300+ lawyer national firm. Dechert LLP, a global law firm with 900+ lawyers across 24 offices, represented ING.
Star Mountain was again named Best Places to Work by Pensions & Investments and one of the 2020 Best Places to Work by Crain’s New York Business highlighting the firms focus on culture and community.
ABOUT STAR MOUNTAIN
With approximately $2 billion in assets under management (as of June 2021), Star Mountain takes a data-driven approach to investing into the U.S. lower middle-market through two complementary investment strategies: (i) direct debt and equity investing and (ii) secondaries (acquiring LP interests and direct assets). Star Mountain believes these complementary strategies provide scalable and diversified access for its institutional and high-net-worth investors to established small and medium-sized businesses that generally have at least $15 million in annual revenues. Star Mountain’s 75+ person, 100% employee-owned team and Collaborative Ecosystem ® provides distinctive value to lower middle-market businesses as a flexible capital solution partner.
Since 2010, Star Mountain has made over 100 direct investments in U.S. small and medium-sized businesses and over 20 secondaries / fund investments within its Collaborative Ecosystem ®, exclusively focused on the U.S. lower middle-market. With over 75 team members (including advisors/operating partners) across 20+ locations nationwide, Star Mountain believes its focus and dedication has been productive for job creation and economic development. Star Mountain is dedicated to this large market of underserved businesses purpose-built to address the challenges and opportunities of these companies. As part of its commitment, Star Mountain has trademarked Investing in the Growth Engine of America ®.
As part of its ESG program (Environmental, Social and Governance), Star Mountain’s Charitable Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 focuses on improving lives through economic development, including job creation, health & wellness and cancer research. Notable missions include helping match veterans and women with high quality small and medium-sized business career opportunities across the country, including within Star Mountain’s portfolio.
Note: This does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase interests in any investment product. Awards and recognitions by unaffiliated rating services, companies and/or publications should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he / she / it will experience a certain level of results if Star Mountain is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services; nor should they be construed as a current or past endorsement, testimonial endorsement, recommendation or referral of Star Mountain or its representatives by any of its clients or any other third party. Rankings published by magazines and others are generally based exclusively on information prepared and / or submitted by the recognized advisor. Moreover, with regard to all performance information contained herein, directly or indirectly, if any, readers should note that past results are not indicative of future results. The description and the selection methodologies of each award and recognition are subjective and will vary.
Awards and recognitions by unaffiliated rating services, companies, and/or publications should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she/it will experience a certain level of results if SMFM is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services; nor should they be construed as a current or past endorsement, testimonial endorsement, recommendation or referral of SMFM or its representatives by any of its clients or any other third party. Rankings published by magazines and others are generally based exclusively on information prepared and/or submitted by the recognized advisor.
Crain’s two-part survey process consisted of evaluating each nominated company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The second part involved an employee survey to measure the employee experience. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking. Star Mountain must pay a fee to Crain’s only for survey collection purposes. Detailed eligibility criteria can be found here: https://www.bestplacestoworknyc.com/eligibility-criteria
To be named to P&I's Best Places list, all firms met Best Companies' high threshold for inclusion and were evaluated against others of similar size. Individual firm profiles, which were compiled based on survey results, reflect U.S. employment numbers and were confirmed by Best Companies in the summer. Company and employee comments were edited for space, style and clarity. Assets under management or advisement are as of June 30, unless otherwise noted. To participate, companies had to have at least 20 employees in the U.S., at least $100 million of discretionary assets under management or advisement and be in business for at least one year. An anonymous employee survey, which aimed to evaluate.
