European Strategic Partners 2006, the latest private equity fund of funds raised by Standard Life Investments, has had its final closing with EUR900m in commitments from investors, followi
European Strategic Partners 2006, the latest private equity fund of funds raised by Standard Life Investments, has had its final closing with EUR900m in commitments from investors, following the success of the fund manager’s first US private equity fund of funds product, North American Strategic Partners, which raised USD300m.
Says David Currie, chief executive of Standard Life Investments (Private Equity): ‘The successful final close of these private equity funds of funds represents a total of over GBP760m.
‘ESP 2006, the fourth fund in the European ESP series of private equity fund of funds, held its first close in March 2006. It has attracted strong interest from all over the world – commitments were received from North American, European, Middle Eastern, Asian, and UK clients. Standard Life Investments (Private Equity) now has clients in 24 countries.
‘ESP 2006 started to make commitments to European buyout firms soon after its first close and now has 12 funds in its portfolio. The co-investment portfolio is also progressing well with four investments. We anticipate making further commitments, both in terms of fund investment and co-investment opportunities, during 2007.
‘The fact that we have successfully closed and exceeded our target for both funds shows that an ever increasing number of clients are attracted by our experienced team of private equity professionals who have generated a strong track record underpinned by a focused investment approach.’
European Strategic Partners 2006 has EUR660m for investment in private equity funds and EUR240m for co-investments. More than EUR 320m euros has already been committed to private equity funds, and EUR28m has been invested in co-investments.
The fund-raising for North American Strategic Partners, which targets mid-market private equity fund investments focusing on buyouts and special situations, was completed nine months ahead of schedule with significant excess client demand, vindicating the firm’s decision in 2003 to expand into the US private equity market, based on SLI’s confidence that North America offered real potential and exciting opportunities for private equity.
The fund was capped at USD300m with commitments received from North American, UK and Middle East investors including pension schemes and financial institutions, split roughly equally between new and existing clients. The fund will be managed from SLI’s Boston office, which includes five private equity investment executives led by Dan Cahill dedicated to investing in the North American market.
Standard Life Investments, launched in 1998 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of insurer Standard Life, operates in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Hong Kong and the USA, has representative offices in Germany and South Korea, and a joint venture in India. With assets under management of GBP137bn, the business is one of the UK’s major investment houses and controlled around 1.8 per cent of the UK stock market at the end of March.
