Sentinel Capital Partners, L.L.C. is an American private-equity firm focusing on mid-market companies in the United States and Canada. The company is headquartered at One Vanderbilt Avenue in New York City and was founded in 1995 by David Lobel and John McCormack, who previously worked together at Smith Barney's private equity affiliate, First Century Partners. Since its founding, Sentinel has raised more than $11.2 billion of capital.
Operations Sentinel makes majority-ownership investments through its equity funds and takes minority stakes through its capital solutions funds. The firm invests in management buyouts, corporate divestitures, acquisitions of family businesses, going-private transactions, and special situations.
Sentinel targets companies with enterprise values between $25 million and $250 million, and EBITDA between $5 million and $65 million. The firm has focused its investments on companies operating in the aerospace and defense, business services, consumer, food and restaurant, healthcare services, and industrial sectors.
Investment funds Sentinel invests through a series of private limited partnerships and its investors include a variety of pension funds, endowments, and other institutional investors. Since Sentinel's establishment in 1995, it has raised seven private equity funds and two junior capital funds.
Investors in Sentinel Funds include college and university endowments, foundations, state and government retirement systems, corporate pension plans, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, investment advisors, and family offices located in the United States, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, and the Middle East.
Fund VintageYear CommittedCapital ($m) Sentinel Capital Partners VII 2022 $4,350 Sentinel Junior Capital II 2022 $835 Sentinel Capital Partners VI 2018 $2,150 Sentinel Junior Capital I 2018 $460 Sentinel Capital Partners V 2013 $1,300 Sentinel Capital Partners IV 2008 $765 Sentinel Capital Partners III 2005 $319 Sentinel Capital Partners II 1998 $126 Sentinel Capital Partners I 1996 $50
Leadership In March 2025, Sentinel announced a leadership succession plan under which Eric Bommer, who joined Sentinel as its first professional hire in 1997, was elevated to serve alongside David S. Lobel as co-managing partner, positioning him as Lobel's eventual successor. John F. McCormack continues as senior partner.
Controversy
Buffet Holdings Settlement In 2010, the creditors of Buffets Holding sued Sentinel and its investment partner Caxton-Iseman Capital for "bilk[ing] Buffets of hundreds of millions of dollars" that led to its insolvency. Sentinel and CI Capital settled the lawsuit for more than $23 million.
TGI Fridays Sentinel and Triartisan Capital Partners acquired TGI Fridays in 2014 from Carlson a month after the company facing a nationwide collective action wage theft lawsuit. The company tried to prevent certification of an FLSA collective by settling with individual workers that alleged unpaid wages up to $91 million. Eventually TGI Fridays settled in 2017 for over $19 million to over 28,000 workers, the largest wage and hour payout at the time. In 2018, TGI Fridays was also found to have failed to pay £59,348 to its U.K. staff.
In 2019, TGI Friday was sued in a proposed class-action lawsuit for selling potato skin chips that don't contain potato skins.
In April 2020, Sentinel's deal to take TGI Friday's public was called off due to "extraordinary market conditions" due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Past Investments The firm has previously invested in franchise holders of some of the world's largest fast food chains such as Checkers and Rally's, Church's Chicken, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Other past holdings include:
Company Sector Acquired Sold/Exited Notes Captain D's Food/Restaurant 2017 2022 Quick-service seafood chain Fazoli's Group Food/Restaurant 2015 2021 Sold to FAT Brands for $130 million Pet Supplies Plus Consumer 2018 2020 Sold to Franchise Group for $700 million MB2 Dental Healthcare 2019 2021 Sold to Charlesbank Capital Partners Colson Group Industrials 2012 2021 Sold to Blue Wolf Capital SONNY's Industrials 2016 2020 Car wash systems; sold to Genstar New Era Technology Business Services 2019 2025 IT solutions provider Corporate Visions Business Services 2016 2021 Sales and marketing enablement Apex Companies Business Services 2018 2023 Environmental services; sold to Morgan Stanley Capital Partners ECM Industries Industrials 2019 2023 Sold to nVent Electric for $1.1 billion Nekoosa Industrials 2017 2022 Specialty paper and film products New You Bariatric Group Healthcare 2019 2025 Bariatric surgery practice management GSM Outdoors Consumer 2018 2020 Hunting and outdoor accessories Altima Dental Healthcare 2016 2022 Merged with 123Dentist Critical Solutions International Aerospace/Defense 2011 2020 Merged with AirBoss of America to create AirBoss Defense Group Driven Performance Brands Consumer 2015 2018 Merged into Holley Performance Products Hollander Sleep Products Consumer 2010 2014 Bedding products Playcore Consumer 2014 2018 Playground equipment Quick Weight Loss Centers Healthcare 2016 2020 Weight management services Marketplace Events Business Services 2016 2019 Consumer show production Revenew Business Services 2016 2019 Marketing services platform RotoMetrics Industrials 2015 2020 Rotary cutting tools WellSpring Pharmaceutical Healthcare 2011 2015 Specialty pharmaceutical company
Current Investments
Aerospace / Defense
Airboss Defense Group Spectrum Safety Solutions Total Military Management
Business Services
Ubeo Business Services New Era Technology (minority stake retained after 2025 exit)
Consumer
cabi DecoPac Holley Performance Products L2 Brands
Healthcare
Midwest Eye Consultants 123Dentist
Industrials
NSI Industries
References
External links