Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto, sold a diversified portfolio of 20 limited partnership fund interests in mostly North American and European buyout funds to Ardian, a French-based private investment manager, for about $2.1 billion, said a Nov. 7 release from Ardian.
The portfolio represents various commitments made by CPP over the course of about 20 years, according to a separate release from CPP.
"As a systematic buyer and seller in the secondaries market, we see this sale as an attractive opportunity to optimize the construction of our portfolio and to allow us to further support future investments," said Suyi Kim, senior managing director and global head of private equity at CPP Investments, in the CPP release.
Ardian in its release said this transaction continues its secondary funds strategy to "provide active portfolio management solutions to large institutions looking to rebalance their portfolios and monetize their private equity investments." Ardian also noted that it has the world's largest secondaries and primaries platform, with more than $89 billion under management or advisement.
"This latest acquisition comes at a significant time for the industry where many LPs continue to address the denominator effect and are looking for portfolio management opportunities like this to open up capital for future commitments," said Mark Benedetti, member of the executive committee and co-head of Ardian U.S,. in the release.
Ardian manages or advises on $156 billion of assets. As of June 30, CPP totaled C$575 billion ($433.6 billion) in net assets.
