U-M endowment invests in Detroit-based Huron Capital Partners

The University of Michigan is putting a little bit more of its money into the local economy, investing $15 million in the Huron Capital Partners.

The downtown Detroit-based private equity fund recently closed on a $500 million investment fund, the company's fourth and largest to date. The 13-year-old company has invested in 61 companies in its lifespan and was named Private Equity Firm of the Year for 2010 by Mergers & Acquisitions, a leading publication for private equity.

Huron Capital Partners specializes in investing $10 million to $70 million at a time into lower middle-market companies  with revenues up to $200 million. It targets growing companies looking for sponsor management buyouts, family succession transactions, market-entry strategies, corporate carve-outs, and recapitalizations of niche manufacturing, specialty service, and value-added distribution.

The University of Michigan Endowment Fund, worth $8 billion, made the investment in Huron Capital Partners, which was approved by the university's Board of Regents in December. The university has announced that it plans to invest more of its money locally through things like the Michigan Investment in New Technology Startups initiative. The Huron Capital Partners investment isn't part of that initiative, but fits into the university's overall goal of investing more locally. A university spokesman declined to elaborate of the reasoning behind U-M's investment in Huron Capital Partners.

"There is not much to say," Rick Fitzgerald, associate director at the University of Michigan's Office of Public Affairs & Internal Communication, wrote in an email. "The Investment Office prefers not to discuss the university's investment strategy."

Source: Rick Fitzgerald, associate director at the University of Michigan's Office of Public Affairs & Internal Communication
Writer: Jon Zemke

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