Alternative assets and fund of fund manager LGT Capital Partners has closed its second global secondaries fund Crown Global Secondaries II plc (CGS II) with $1.2 billion capital commitment. The secondaries private equity market provides liquidity to private equity investors, allowing them to sell positions in private equity funds and liquidate equity stakes in private companies.
The Swiss firm that manages a total of $19 billion in private equity and hedge fund investments focused on institutional investors received subscription from pension funds, insurance companies, endowments and foundations from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK and US.
LGT Capital Partners had held a first close of CGS II at $268 million last August.
Tycho Sneyers, Partner at LGT Capital Partners, said in a statement: “There was very strong demand for the offering which initially targeted to raise $750 million. Following a first closing in Aug 2009 and a consistent deployment of capital throughout 2009, we raised our target to a cap of $1.2 billion. And even with the increased target size, the fund ended up significantly oversubscribed.”
Ivan Vercoutere, Partner at LGT Capital Partners, added: “We have completed over 20 transactions so far for CGS II, in which we have acquired a total of over 50 underlying funds that have invested in North America, Europe and Asia. These transactions have performed very well and we believe our disciplined approach of acquiring high quality assets through mid sized transactions will continue to achieve attractive returns.”
LGT Capital Partners has been investing in secondaries for over 10 years, and over that period the firm has achieved an IRR in excess of 25% (without the use of leverage) having returned 81% of called capital to date.
Since last August LGT Capital Partners completed fifteen transactions for CGS II, where it acquired a total of 13 underlying funds with portfolio investments in the US, Europe and China.
With a team of more than 160 professionals, the firm targets less competitive mid-market transactions. Headquartered in Pfaeffikon (SZ), Switzerland, the firm has offices in New York, London, Dublin, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
