Type Private Ownership Predecessor Fox Paine & Company Founder W. Dexter Paine III | Industry Private equity Total assets $2.7 billion Founded 2007 | |
Headquarters Foster City, California, United States Products Private equity funds, Leveraged buyouts, Growth capital | ||
Paine & Partners is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions. The firm was founded in 2007 by W. Dexter Paine III following his departure from predecessor Fox Paine & Company, which he had co-founded in 1997.
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In 2007, the Paine & Partners formalized a year-long separation process, with Fox Paine co-founder Saul Fox retaining the predecessor 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.
Paine & Partners is headquartered in Foster City, California, with offices in New York City and Chicago.
History
In 2005, Saul Fox and Dexter Paine, the two partners of Fox Paine & Company, began showing signs of disagreement 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 was originally known as Fox Paine Capital Fund III, without Saul Fox's active involvement. However under this arrangement Fox would receive 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.
Prior to co-founding Fox Paine in 1997, 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.