Vestar Capital Partners / About Us

Success Through Partnership

In 1988, seven principals of The First Boston Corporation’s Management Buyout Group took the same entrepreneurial leap we had been advising our clients to take: We stepped out on our own.

In those days, the trend in private equity was toward short-term transactions and quick profits, often achieved through drastic cost-cutting at underperforming companies. We set a very different course. We decided to focus our investments on what truly makes a company successful, and ensures its long-term value: the managers who run it.

Twenty years and 65 transactions later, we’re still doing it the same way—and our investments in management continue to provide exceptional returns with a minimum of risk. Those returns have been consistently in the top quartile of all middle-market private equity funds, and our loss rate ranks among the lowest in our industry. We currently manage funds with committed capital totaling approximately $7 billion.

Our original team of seven has now grown to include more than fifty investment professionals in the United States and Europe. Six of the seven founders continue to manage the firm, and our founding principle—invest in management—continues to guide every transaction.