Macfarlanes has advised Azini Capital Partners on the formation of Azini 2, a USD100m fund which has been backed by Lexington Partners, a manager of secondary private equity and co-investment funds.
The fund has acquired two partnerships from Apax Partners. The two partnerships own interests in 16 technology companies in Europe and the US.
The fund retains significant reserves to allow Azini Capital to provide additional funding to support the ongoing development and growth of the portfolio companies.
Macfarlanes’ funds partner Stephen Sims says: “We expect that this type of bespoke fundraising will become increasingly popular as sellers refocus their strategies and divest non-core assets, and certain investors move away from traditional blind pool funds.”
The instruction is Macfarlanes’ first for Azini Capital, an independent private equity fund manager which specialises in “direct secondary” transactions, acquiring portfolios of shareholdings in private and public companies from existing and historical investors.
Mayer Brown partner David Bates and associate Megan Paul advised Azini Capital on the acquisition of the partnerships, and their underlying companies, from Apax Partners.
Nick Habgood, managing partner of Azini Capital, says: “This is the first time that we have worked with Macfarlanes and we were very happy with the quality of advice and service that we received and were impressed with the fact that Macfarlanes and Mayer Brown teams worked together so well. We look forward to working with Macfarlanes in the future.”
