Lee Equity Partners is an American

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including le ...

focused on

growth capital Growth capital (also called expansion capital and growth equity) is a type of private equity investment, usually a minority investment, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new mar ...

investments in middle-market companies across a range of industries. The firm, which is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, was founded in 2006 by Thomas H. Lee, the notable private equity investor who previously founded Thomas H. Lee Partners and also owns the Blue Star group of fund of hedge funds.

History

In March 2006, Thomas H. Lee resigned from Thomas H. Lee Partners as the firm was nearing completion of fundraising for its sixth

private equity fund A private equity fund (abbreviated as PE fund) is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equit ...

. In the same year, Lee formed Lee Equity Partners, a

focused on the same

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...

transactions that he had been completing for nearly 35 years at THL. Both Lee and THL insisted that the move was amicable; however, persistent reports suggested that Lee, who had limited his day-to-day involvement in the firm and had relocated to

, had been pushed out by several partners. Among the first professionals to join Lee Equity Partners included Mark Gormley, a founding partner of Capital Z Partners; David Morrison, former president and CEO of Mercer Management Consulting; and Allen Questrom, former CEO of

J.C. Penney Company Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gi ...

, Barneys New York,

Federated Department Stores Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shilli ...

and

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compan ...

. The firm also brought in former investment professionals from

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry sec ...

and

The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and ...

. The firm's first investments included the acquisition of

Deb Shops Deb Shops was a specialty retail chain store and catalog in the United States, selling women's clothing and accessories under its own private labels, as well as other labels, then exclusively an online retailer. The company was based in Philade ...

in 2007.Lee Equity Buys Deb Shops for $395 Million
New York Times, July 30, 2007

References

Private equity firms of the United States Financial services companies established in 2006 Companies based in New York City 2006 establishments in New York (state) {{Private-equity-company-stub