H&F (Hellman and Friedman) is a private equity firm that was formed by Tully Friedman and Warren Hellman in 1984. It specializes particularly in minority growth capital investments and leveraged buyouts.

Prior to H&F, Hellman was among the founders of Hellman, Ferri Investment Associates that later became known as the Matrix Management Company. At present, Matrix is considered as one of the well-known venture capital businesses in the United States. Before Matrix, Hellman was working at the Lehman Brothers in investment banking, where he acted as president and head of the Investment Banking Division as well as the chairman of Lehman Corporation.

Hellman and Friedman focuses on various target industries such as financial services, information services, professional services and media. However, it tries to avoid asset intensive or other industrial-related businesses like chemicals, manufacturing, and transportation.

H&F is currently headquartered in San Francisco, California, with other branches in London, England, and New York. As of last year, the firm hired about 45 investment professionals, with 8 directors, 6 principals, 14 managing directors and 13 associates and general counsels and senior consultants.

One of the firm’s main strategy is investing “growth” opportunities be it a particular business or an industry sector. As a result, Hellman and Friedman invests in various structures, constantly developing minority investments that have limited controls. The firm sees its eagerness to take on minority positions as the competitive gain while recognizing the inherent consequences associated with a minority position. It has as well pursued several unconventional efforts to close and finance transactions, including syndicating and arranging the financing for investments like Goodman Global and Getty Images.

Hellman and Friedman has been actively making new investments since completing its sixth PE fund two years ago. These include:
• Gartmore
• NASDAQ
• Nielsen Company
• Getty Images
• Goodman Global
• DoubleClick
• Texas Genco