Industry Private Equity Website www.foxpaine.com Type of business Private Ownership | Founder Saul A. Fox Founded 1996 Total assets 1.5 billion USD | |
Headquarters Woodside, California, United States | ||
Fox Paine & Company is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions. Fox Paine & Company, LLC was founded in 1997 by former Kohlberg Kravis Roberts partner Saul A. Fox and former Kohlberg & Co. partner W. Dexter Paine III. In 2007, the firm formalized a year-long separation process, with Saul Fox retaining the firm's name, while Dexter Paine formed a new firm, Paine & Partners, with the legacy Fox Paine investment team.
The firm primarily invests in financial services and insurance companies, with investments in semiconductors, agribusiness, healthcare, energy, telecommunications, industrials and consumer goods.
Fox Paine is headquartered in Woodside, California.
History
Prior to founding Fox Paine in 1997, Fox had been a partner at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, while Paine had been an investment banker and private equity investor at San Francisco-based Robertson Stephens and later Kohlberg & Co. The two partners had been encouraged to work together given their previous business dealings. In 1985, Dexter Paine had helped Saul Fox arrange financing for the leveraged buyout of Motel 6, while at KKR.
In 1998, Fox Paine completed fundraising for Fox Paine Capital Fund, an investment fund with $500 million of investor commitments. In 2001, the firm successfully raised Fox Paine Capital Fund II, a $1.0 billion investment fund, exceeding its original $750 million target.
The following is a selected list of notable investments made by Fox Paine:
In 2005, the two partners disagreed about the raising of a third investment fund, with Dexter Paine pushing the effort and Saul Fox preferring to focus on existing investments. In 2006, they reached an agreement that let Dexter Paine launch what became known as the Fox Paine Capital Fund III, without Saul Fox's active involvement while paying Fox a 25% interest in the new fund's general partnership. The situation broke down in 2007 and the two partners resorted to litigation to settle a number of disputes.
In December 2007, Fox and Paine came to a compromise under which Saul Fox retained the use of the Fox Paine name and control over the investments in Fox Paine Fund II. In return, Saul Fox ceded his interest in Fox Paine Fund III, which would subsequently be renamed Paine Capital Fund III as well as the remaining legacy interest in the original Fox Paine Capital Fund.
In August 2016, Saul A. Fox held a private fundraiser at his Woodside home in California for Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump.