MiddleGround, a private equity firm, completed the acquisition of Castle Metals, a provider of metals, services, and supply chain solutions, and Banner Industries, a processor and distributor of metal bar products, for $440m. "With the successful close of this continuation vehicle, we were able to return significant capital to Fund I investors and had the opportunity for a meaningful liquidity event that returns $102m of recyclable capital and $234m of Fund I returns. In this market, this is an extraordinary achievement and demonstrates our ability to find creative solutions in a difficult market for the benefit of our investors. While the Banner investment has been a successful outcome for Fund I, the CV has a lot of opportunity to create value for its investors and we saw a strong uptake from Fund I investors investing in the CV as well as strong demand from new investors. Hamilton Lane was lead investor on the deal. Our team, led by Ryan McComb on the Transaction side and Mandy Kamm on the Investor Relations side, raised the CV in less than 30 days. We were able to sell Banner with no discount to the mark and with no placement agent fees. Since the inception of MiddleGround we have built strong investor relationships that appreciate our differentiated approach to Industrial investing. We have delivered over a billion dollars of co-investment opportunity and those relationships were the difference while raising the capital for the CV,” John Stewart, MiddleGround Founding and Managing Partner.