title: Littlejohn & Co.
text: # Littlejohn & Co.
  
  Littlejohn & Co. is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions, leveraged recapitalizations of middle-market companies and distressed securities. The firm focuses on companies requiring an operational turnaround particularly in a variety of industrial and service sectors.
  
  The firm is based in Cos Cob, Connecticut and was founded in 1996 by Angus C. Littlejohn Jr.
  
  ## History
  
  In 1996, Angus Littlejohn resigned from Joseph Littlejohn & Levy (today known as JLL Partners) to form a new private investment firm with Michael Klein: Littlejohn & Co. JLL underwent significant turnover as the following year co-founder Peter Joseph also left the firm.
  
  Littlejohn traces its roots back to Gilliam Joseph & Littlejohn, a merchant bank founded in 1987 by Angus C. Littlejohn Jr., along with William J. Gilliam and Peter A. Joseph. Littlejohn had previously worked with his two co-founders the Quadrex Corporation, a small New York brokerage firm. In 1988, Paul S. Levy, formerly a managing director, at Drexel Burnham Lambert, focusing on corporate restructurings and exchange offers was recruited to join the firm, which was renamed Gilliam Joseph Littlejohn & Levy and later Joseph Littlejohn & Levy, when Gilliam was forced to leave the partnership in 1989.
  
  In July 2014, Littlejohn & Co held a final close for its fifth fund on its hard cap of $2 billion.
  
  ## Funds raised
  
  Since its founding, Littlejohn has raised five main private equity funds, as well as an annex fund and a distressed securities fund, with investor commitments totaling $7.8 billion:
  
  * 1997 — Littlejohn Fund I ($200 million)
  * 1999 — Littlejohn Fund II ($530 million)
  * 2005 — Littlejohn Fund III ($650 million)
  * 2007 — Littlejohn Fund III add-on ($200 million)
  * 2010 — Littlejohn Fund IV ($1.34 billion)
  * 2014 — Littlejohn Fund V ($2.0 billion)
  * 2018 — Littlejohn Fund VI ($2.84 billion)
  
  ## Portfolio companies
  
  The following is a selected list of notable companies in which Littlejohn has invested:
  
  * Durakon Industries
  * Foodbrands America Inc.
  * Polymer Corporation
  * PSC Inc.
  * Van Houtte
  * Wyle Laboratories
  