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Unigestion holds final close for Secondary Opportunity IV

Boutique asset manager Unigestion has held the final close of Unigestion Secondary Opportunity IV (USO IV), the firm’s fourth global small and mid-market private equity secondary investment program, at EUR306 million – nearly twice the size of its predecessor fund.

USO IV has already completed 11 secondary transactions across North America, Europe and Asia, and the final close attracted strong investor support from both new and existing clients, including insurers, pension funds, banks and family offices across the UK, mainland Europe and Asia.
 
Unigestion’s strategy for USO IV is to seek secondary opportunities where high quality assets can be acquired at attractive valuations, through the acquisition of Limited Partner (LP) stakes in small and middle market funds, General Partner led situations and secondary directs. The firm invests globally and focuses on the smaller end of the secondary market, with deal sizes ranging from EUR5 to 30 million.
 
Unigestion has been investing the fund since the beginning of 2017, and has already deployed 40 per cent of the fund. One of the fund’s first transactions was an investment in a portfolio of global coffee brands. Other investments include the restructuring of a small US fund consisting of two companies, a secondary direct investment in a portfolio of US wellness brands and a restructuring of a Nordic buy-and-build portfolio. More recently, the firm acquired an LP position in a well-known Chinese fund, and closed the direct secondary in a high growth US branded food business.
 
Christiaan van der Kam, Partner, Private Equity, says: “Price discipline is of paramount importance in today’s secondary environment and our differentiated strategy at the smaller end of the market allows us to source deals outside of competitive auctions and invest in companies at more attractive valuations. 2017 was a fruitful year, given the number of high quality transactions that we completed. We are very happy with the portfolio we have built so far and are confident that the fund will deliver attractive and robust performance to investors.”

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