Private Equity Fund Liable for Portfolio Companies’ Pension Debt

A private equity fund managed by Longroad Asset Management LLC can be held liable for the pension withdrawal liability of certain of its portfolio companies, but the firm itself itself isn’t on the hook.

Longroad Capital Partners III LP qualifies as a “trade or business” under common control with portfolio companies obligated to contribute to the Boilermaker-Blacksmith National Pension Trust, Judge Greg Kays said Tuesday. The fund—a limited partnership managed by Longroad—was more than a passive investor in these companies, because it took steps to oversee and direct the companies’ operational affairs and embedded its advisers within the companies to ...