Irving Place Capital

Irving Place Capital, formerly known as Bear Stearns Merchant Banking (BSMB), is an American private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in middle-market companies in the industrial, packaging, consumer and retail industries. Based in New York City, it has total committed capital across its funds of $5.9 billion.

The firm's predecessor Bear Stearns Merchant Banking was founded in 1997 by John D. Howard, formerly a co-founder of Vestar Capital Partners. The group completed its separation from Bear Stearns' owner JPMorgan Chase in 2008.

Since inception, Irving Place Capital and its predecessor, Bear Stearns Merchant Banking has made a number of investments in notable companies in the retail, consumer products, healthcare, energy, financial and business services, packaging and industrial sectors. Among the firm's most notable investments are the following (separated by the private equity fund from which the investment was made:

In 1997, John D. Howard was hired by Bear Stearns to launch a new private equity and merchant banking effort for the investment bank. Prior to joining Bear Stearns, Howard had been senior vice president of Wesray Capital Corporation and later co-founded Vestar Capital Partners in 1988. In 1998, Bear Stearns Merchant Banking raised its first fund with $200 million of investor commitments.

In 2001, Bear Stearns Merchant Banking completed fundraising for its second fund with $1.5 billion of investor commitments including a $500 million commitment from Bear Stearns.

In 2006, Bear Stearns Merchant Banking raised its third fund with $2.7 billion of investor commitments.

Through the intervention of the Federal Reserve and other US Government agencies, Bear Stearns agreed to a sale of the company to JPMorgan Chase on March 24, 2008, which was completed on May 30, 2008. Following the closing of this transaction, Bear Stearns Merchant Banking became a part of JPMorgan Chase.

On November 1, 2008, Bear Stearns Merchant Banking completed a spin out from JPMorgan Chase to become Irving Place Capital. As an independent firm, Irving Place Capital began focusing on its core strengths in industrial, packaging, consumer, and retail businesses, completing seven additional investments in those verticals for its third fund, and also making several exits. In 2014, with several of the third fund's investments needing extra time, Irving Place Capital sought a mechanism to provide liquidity to those limited partners in its third fund desiring it, while also providing those limited partners interested in participating in future value to do so. As a result, in July 2015, Irving Place Capital closed on a new vehicle, Irving Place Capital Partners III SPV, LP, with $1.5 billion in capital commitments. During the same period, Phil Carpenter joined John Howard in managing the firm as Co-Managing Partners.