Palamon Capital Partners completed a transaction that allowed limited partners in two of its European private equity funds to sell their interests to a consortium of five money managers, said Jamie Brownlee, a Palamon spokesman, in an e-mail.
The consortium — Adams Street Partners, Goldman Sachs’ AIMS Private Equity Group, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, Dutch pension fund provider PGGM and Rothschild Merchant Banking Group — also committed capital to a new fund. Mr. Brownlee said Palamon is not disclosing how much capital was committed or the name of the fund.
The new fund will invest alongside another Palamon fund, Palamon Auxiliary Partnership 2013, that closed on €210 million ($283.4 million) in 2013, including a co-investment fund. The 2013 fund had a two-year investment period, a 10-year fund life and included more than 20 investors including Adams Street Partners, the corporate pension fund of Honeywell, private equity investors AlpInvest Partners and Quilvest, and the endowment of Spelman College, Palamon announced at the time.
More than 25% of the total net asset value of the two funds — the €440 million Palamon European Equity and €670 million Palamon European Equity II — were sold by limited partners. The two funds’ structures and terms remained unchanged following the sales. Palamon sought the liquidity solution in response to requests from “a small number of LPs,” Mr. Brownlee wrote.
“Palamon had received inquiries from investors seeking liquidity in late 2014. At the same time Palamon became aware of the new secondary technology in the marketplace, developed principally by Credit Suisse, and realized there was an opportunity to create a ‘win-win-win’ scenario: help support investors seeking liquidity, help incoming investors seeking to access Palamon’s system and bring fresh capital into the Palamon investment program,” Mr. Brownlee wrote.
Palamon European Equity is a 1999 vintage fund with two remaining companies; Palamon European Equity II is a 2006 vintage fund with eight remaining companies.
Investors in at least one of the funds include the Oregon Investment Council, which oversees the $70.1 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, Salem; $106.8 billion Washington State Investment Board, Olympia; $20 billion San Francisco City & County Employees’ Retirement System; and $27.6 billion Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System, Harrisburg.
Credit Suisse’s private fund’s group managed the sales process.
Additional information including the value of the transaction could not be learned by press time.
