DWS has held the final close of its inaugural Private Equity Solutions (PES) fund achieving USD550 million, including discretionary co-investment vehicles, which is in excess of its target and hard-cap of USD500 million and USD525 million respectively.
Demonstrating significant demand for its mid-life secondaries strategy, the inaugural fund closed with a global investor base consisting of state pension plans, insurance companies, corporate institutional investors and family offices in North America, Europe and the Middle East. The fund has made a total of 12 investments, which have exhibited positive performance to date.
The private equity business at DWS has focused on developing a differentiated mid-life secondaries strategy that offers a compelling risk-return profile to investors whilst allowing existing private equity sponsors to continue to back their better performing portfolio companies. The strategy provides acquisition/M&A capital to existing portfolio companies, delivering partial liquidity solutions on single assets or structuring continuation fund solutions for GPs and their investors.
In a joint statement, Kumber Husain, Head of Private Equity Americas, and Daniel Green, Head of Private Equity EMEA at DWS, say: “We are proud to have attracted such a high-quality investor base to our mid-life secondaries strategy, which offers an appealing solution to private equity sponsors to continue growing their better performing assets. The strong portfolio of investments we have developed to date has contributed to demand from investors against the backdrop of the ongoing growth in GP-led secondaries and bespoke capital solutions.”
Mark McDonald, Global Head of Private Equity at DWS, adds: “It is a testament to the strength of our team globally for the inaugural PES fund to be oversubscribed, and with the majority of the fundraise taking place during the current Covid-19 pandemic. We seek to deliver consistent risk-adjusted returns to our investors as we continue to build out our team and extend our reach going forward.”
