26North Partners, an emerging firm led by Apollo Global Management veteran Josh Harris, has made its first private equity investment.
The firm has agreed to acquire ArchKey Solutions, a specialty provider of electrical installation and facility services for large construction projects, for more than $1 billion including debt, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
New PE players have been making up a growing portion of the market’s fundraising activity. In the first quarter 27% of all middle-market PE capital was raised by emerging managers, according to PitchBook’s latest US PE Middle Market Report.
Founded by Apollo’s Harris in 2022, 26North isn’t just any upstart PE firm. It launched with more than $5 billion in assets out of the gate and has been targeting up to $4 billion for its inaugural private equity fund.
Harris and team are hunting investments in a wide range of sectors including industrial, financial, technology and media, Bloomberg reported in December. The firm’s PE platform is led by Mark Weinberg, formerly head of US private equity at Brookfield Asset Management.
26North aims to invest across several asset classes. The firm now manages around $22 billion and has made multiple efforts to scale its offerings, including launching a direct lending team led by senior partner Brendan McGovern last year.
St. Louis-based ArchKey has annual revenue of $1.4 billion, according to the company’s website, from a business that designs, builds and maintains electrical and other specialty systems.
One Rock Capital Partners, which backed a management-led buyout of the contractor in 2021, will retain its investment in ArchKey.
New York-based 26North didn’t respond to requests for comment. A representative for ArchKey wasn’t immediately available for comment.
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