| Type | Private, LLC |
|---|---|
| Industry | Private Equity |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Founder(s) | Tully Friedman Spencer Fleischer David Lowe |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Products | Leveraged buyout, Growth capital |
| Total assets | $2.6 billion [1] |
| Employees | 20+ (2011) |
| Website | www.fflpartners.com |
Friedman Fleischer & Lowe (FFL) is a private equity firm, founded in 1998 by Tully Friedman, Spencer Fleischer, David Lowe, and Christopher Masto. The firm makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts and growth capital investments.
FFL has focused its efforts on several core target industries including media, financial services, professional services, and information services. The firm tends to avoid asset intensive or other industrial businesses (e.g., manufacturing, chemicals, transportation).
FFL is based in San Francisco and employs over 20 investment professionals. Since inception, FFL has raised approximately $2.6 billion of investor commitments.
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FFL was founded in 1998 by Tully Friedman, together with Spencer Fleischer, David Lowe, and Christopher Masto. Prior to founding FFL, in 1984, Tully Friedman had co-founded Hellman & Friedman, one of the largest private equity firms globally, with Warren Hellman. In contrast to H&F, FFL focuses on smaller, middle market deals, and the firms rarely compete directly for transactions.
The other co-founder, Spencer Fleischer, was a former Morgan Stanley investment banker, and David Lowe ran medical equipment maker ADAC Laboratories. Christopher Masto was a Bain & Company consultant.
FFL invests through a series of private equity funds (structured as limited partnerships), and its investors include a variety of pension funds, endowments, and other institutional investors.
The firm's first private equity fund, Friedman Fleischer & Lowe Capital Partners closed in September 1999 with $319 million of investor commitments.[2] Almost five years later, the firm completed raising $750 million of investor commitments for its second fund, Friedman Fleischer & Lowe Capital Partners II in June 2004 with . In 2007, the firm raised its third investment fund, Friedman Fleischer & Lowe Capital Partners III, with $1.5 billion of investor commitments.[3]
The following are among the firm's most notable current and previous portfolio companies:
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