AXA Private Equity, a leading European diversified private equity firm, announces it has signed an agreement with Barclays for the acquisition of a USD740m (GBP460m) portfolio of limited partnership interests and co-investments in private equity buyout funds. The portfolio does not include any investments managed by Barclays Private Equity. The purchase price for these assets remains undisclosed.
This deal is AXA Private Equity’s second significant transaction in a month, following its USD1.7 billion acquisition of a portfolio of assets from Citigroup on 8 June. In 2010, AXA Private Equity’s Fund of Funds business invested over USD3bn mainly through its acquisitions of two large portfolios of fund interests and direct investments respectively from Bank of America (USD1.8bn) and Natixis (USD900m).
Dominique Senequier, Chief Executive Officer of AXA Private Equity, says: "This transaction continues our strategy to offer liquidity to large institutions looking to monetize their private equity investments. And once again it is the fruition of a long-term, close working relationship with Barclays.
Vincent Gombault, Member of the Board and Managing Director Funds of Funds at AXA Private Equity, says: "We love these kinds of large deals. We have used our unique expertise to assess and acquire a portfolio of quality funds that are well known to AXA Private Equity and managed by high caliber GPs. Having deep knowledge of the portfolio assets enables us to be confident in the terms we ultimately negotiate and provides visibility of the potential for value creation for our investors.”
Gombault adds: “The reason that we are seeing these large transactions can be put down to price recovery in the secondary market, which has come from a 60% discount on NAV to just a single digit in recent transactions. We see these transactions as part of a broader market trend which comprises an increase in financial institution-related deals driven by regulatory factors. But, we also foresee a significant deal flow from large, institutional pension funds that may want to sell their private equity assets in order to rebalance their portfolios.”
