IL Vestar

Idrettslaget Vestar was a Norwegian sports club from Oslo established in 1953, with sections for team handball and athletics.

It was founded as Vestlendingenes IL, indicating its status as a club for people from Western Norway who had moved to Oslo. It took the name IL Vestar in 1960.

It is best known for its women's handball team, which dominated the First Division for much of the 1970s, winning seven titles in a row between 1972 and 1978. This makes it the championship's second most successful club after Larvik HK. Its major international success was reaching the semifinals of the 1977 European Cup, where it was defeated by SC Leipzig. Its best known players were Karen Fladset, Kristin Midthun, Linn Siri Jensen, Ingrid Steen and Cathrine Svendsen.

In athletics, their best known athlete was sprinter Richard Simonsen. One other sprinter won national gold medals; Kåre Magne Åmot in the 100 metres in 1980 and 1981. Handball player Karen Fladset was also a good discus thrower with two Norwegian championships. Leif Rise won national silver and bronze medals in the discus throw and shot put, Astrid Skei won one silver medal in the javelin throw, and John Kristian Johnsen and Oddvin Moland won silver and bronze medals in the triple jump.

Vestar Capital Partners

Vestar Capital Partners is an American private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyout transactions in the United States.

The firm, which was founded in 1988, is headquartered in New York City with offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Denver, Colorado, in the US.

History

Vestar is a leading private equity firm specializing in management buyouts and growth capital investments. Vestar was founded in 1988 by principals of The First Boston Corporation’s Management Buyout Group. Five of the original founders, including Daniel O'Connell, Norman Alpert, Robert L. Rosner, James P. Kelley, and Arthur Nagle, are still with the firm.

The firm has extensive experience investing across a wide variety of industries including: Consumer, Healthcare, Diversified Industries, and Financial Services. Vestar invests and collaborates with incumbent management teams, private owners or corporations in a creative, flexible and entrepreneurial way to build long-term franchise and enterprise value. Since the firm's founding in 1988, the Vestar funds have completed 70 investments in companies with a total value of more than $40 billion.