Providence Equity cited as raising new $12B fund

PROVIDENCE – Providence Equity Partners Inc. has raised $12 billion in less than three months to create the biggest-ever fund to buy media and communication companies, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News last week.
“We’ve been very happy with their performance. They are a mature, established firm,” Peter Kerwin, a spokesman for R.I. Treasurer Frank T. Caprio told Bloomberg. The state has committed an unspecified amount of money to the fund.
The new fund is almost three times the size of the $4.25 billion that Providence Equity collected in 2004, a reflection of how investors are increasingly turning to buyout firms for returns that can exceed stocks and bonds.
Providence Equity has raised $21 billion through six funds since the firm was started in 1990 by CEO Jonathan Nelson. Spokesman Andrew Cole declined to comment on the new fund.