Ripplewood execs spin out to form new firm

Two former Ripplewood executives, Tony Lee and Scott Spielvogel, have spun out to form a firm called One Rock Capital Partners.

Two sources confirmed the spinout, and one investor said, “we’ve known them for a while and think they are both pretty sharp”. The Ripplewood spinout was first reported in Private Equity Insider.

Messages left at New York-based One Rock were not returned. No further information about the firm’s strategy was available at press time.

Lee was a former managing director at Ripplewood responsible for investments in the global chemical and general industries sector. He served at the Tim Collins-led firm for 13 years, according to a short biography on the Korean American Community Foundation web site.

Spielvogel also was a managing director at the firm.

Ripplewood suspended fundraising for its third fund in late 2008. The firm had an initial target of $2.5 billion. One placement agent familiar with the effort said he believed the suspension of fundraising was permanent.

Ripplewood’s second fund, which closed on more than $1 billion in 2000, was returning 1.30 times invested capital and a net internal rate of return of 9.7 percent as of 31 December, 2009, according to information from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

Ripplewood has lost numerous executives over the past several years. In 2005, Ian Snow left to co-found SPG Partners, a mid-market firm. In 2007, Peter Berger, Frank Baker and Jeffrey Hendren left the firm to oversee a private equity programme for hedge fund SAC Capital.

Collins, who founded the firm in 1995, beefed up the executive leadership in the firm in 2007, bringing on Harvey Golub, former chief executive officer of American Express, to work as executive chairman. At press time it was unclear if Golub was still affiliated with Ripplewood. The firm has no web site.

Calls for comment to Ripplewood’s New York office were not returned as of press time.