private ownership industry private equity founded 1971 headquarters new york city new york united states products private equity funds leveraged buyouts recapitalizations growth capital total assets 11.2 billion website www.kelso.com kelso & company is a private equity investment firm focusing on leveraged buyouts recapitalizations and growth capital transactions . kelso invests in a variety of sectors including communication manufacturing and restaurants . kelso is based in new york city . kelso also provides mezzanine capital through a joint venture with blackrock an asset management firm . their joint venture blackrock kelso capital corp. nasdaq bkcc is organized as a type of publicly traded private equity company known as a business development company . contents 1 history 2 investments 3 references 4 external links history edit originally founded in 1971 as kelso bangert & company the firm acted as both an advisor and merchant bank both making investments and advising in mergers and acquisitions . kelso was founded by louis o. kelso a lawyer and economist who is given credit for developing the concept for employee stock ownership plans esops in 1956 . kelso alongside a sister company louis o. kelso inc. focused initially on m & a activity involving employee stock ownership plans . 1 kelso raised its first private equity fund and has had a dedicated private equity investment platform since 1980 . louis o. kelso who died in 1991 transitioned management of the firm to joseph schuchert to focus on writing and lecturing . 1 2 today the firm is headed by frank t. nickell who joined the firm in 1977 . investments edit since 1980 the firm has raised approximately 10.1 billion of investor commitments to its private equity funds and was among the 50 largest private equity firms globally . since its inception the firm has made investments in over 90 companies representing more than 31 billion of aggregate purchase price . kelso & company has invested in energy materials retailing industrial and consumer products telecommunication services financial services and healthcare sectors . 3 the company typically invests in north america with a focus on the united states . it targets investing between 50 million and 600 million in firms that have a value of between 250 million and 2.5 billion . 3 references edit a b louis o. kelso who advocated worker capitalism is dead at 77 . new york times february 21 1991 . standard endorses kelso bid . new york times march 18 1988 . a b kelso & company private company information businessweek . www.bloomberg.com . retrieved 2016 06 14 . external links edit kelso & company company website blackrock kelso capital corp. company website v t e private equity and venture capital investment firms investment strategy venture growth mezzanine secondaries leveraged buyout history history of private equity and venture capital early history of private equity private equity in the 1980s private equity in the 1990s private equity in the 2000s investors angel investor corporate venture capital commercial bank crowdfunding institutional investor insurance company investment bank endowment family office fund of funds high net worth individual merchant bank pension fund sovereign wealth fund private equity firms venture capital firms portfolio companies retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title kelso % 26 company & oldid 744094617 categories private equity firms of the united statescompanies based in new york cityfinancial companies established in 1971former investment bankscompanies listed on nasdaqamerican companies established in 19711971 establishments in new york navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 october 2016 at 02 42 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view