Boutique asset manager Unigestion has held the first close of its fourth dedicated private equity secondaries fund, Unigestion Secondaries Opportunities IV (USO IV).
The fund represents a continuation of the secondaries strategy that Unigestion has deployed since 2000.
USO IV has now received commitments in excess of EUR177 million, which is almost 60 per cent of the fund’s target size. Unigestion is seeking total commitments of EUR300 million.
USO IV seeks transactions at the smaller end of the secondary market, in which high-quality assets can be acquired at attractive valuations. It focuses on small and middle-market funds, fund restructurings, secondary direct portfolios and structured transactions. It has a net return target of 1.6x cost/20 per cent IRR.
Christophe de Dardel, head of private equity at Unigestion, says: “We continue to see compelling investment opportunities at the smaller end of the secondary market. Through a network of fund managers, limited partners and deal introducers which we have developed over 20 years, we are able to source attractively-priced deals on a bilateral basis. We expect deal flow to remain robust for the foreseeable future, especially as the large number of funds which were raised from 2006 to 2008 are now approaching the end of their lives and require liquidity solutions for the existing limited partners.”
