Strong appetite for a new fund of funds included investors looking to switch out of larger funds and into the mid-market.
The beleaguered Australian infrastructure specialist is reviewing Babcock & Brown Capital, a move that follows its purchase of another satellite fund’s management rights and highlights the difficulties the satellite fund model has faced in the wake of the global credit crisis.
The $72.3bn US pension joins a raft of North American funds recording losses for the year to June 30. Once again real estate was the best performing asset class returning 8.74%, followed by fixed income and private equity.
The head of JC Flowers has reportedly established a fund under his personal control – a possible solution to stringent US bank holding company regulations.
The publicly traded Canadian buyout firm expects to hold a final close on its third mega-fund in early 2009. CEO Gerald Schwartz has said despite having done no deals in the second quarter, Onex sees attractive opportunities and is not discouraged by credit conditions.
The private equity firm’s credit subsidiary, GSO Capital Partners, has closed its most recent mezzanine fund as demand for subordinated debt remains strong. The unit has also raised four CLOs and purchased $7.8bn in leveraged loans.
Chrysler Financial, the lender Cerberus purchased alongside its corresponding auto unit last July, fell $6bn short of its $30bn target while renewing its credit facilities. The lender’s credit rating was reduced to B- last week on news of the company exiting consumer leasing.
Direct secondary investment firm Accretive Exit Capital Partners has closed its HarbourVest-backed debut fund on $125m and paid Evercore Capital Partners $110m for stakes in five assets. With its debut fund nearly fully deployed, Accretive will soon head to market with a fund targeting $300m to $400m.
Starting out as a management consultant at Bain & Company, Thomas Dorr went on to spend 14 years at Weyerhaeuser, the Washington State-based pulp and paper company. Having originally intended to be a general manager at the firm, Dorr was invited to join the company's innovative pension arm. According to Dorr, the pension was delivering ?dramatic outperformance? with its pure alternative assets allocation, including hedge funds, private equity and opportunistic real estate. The Weyerhaeuser team moved to Morgan Stanley in 2000 with Dorr becoming CIO for the private equity fund of funds team. With his senior team, he has since been focusing on building a private equity fund of funds operation with a global mandate investing half of its capital inside North America and half outside in small to mid cap buyouts, venture capital and special situations. Since Dorr joined, his team has raised the Morgan Stanley Private Market Fund (PMF) I ($309 million, 2000); PMF II ($500 million, 2004); PMF III ($1 billion, 2006); and the Global Distressed Opportunities Fund ($500 million, 2006).
Established in 1972, and responsible for private equity's first-ever fund of funds, Adams Street Partners is not the kind of organisation to flee in fright when a market downturn looms over the horizon. Andy Thomson and Philip Borel met with Bon French and Hanneke Smits in London to find out more about the firm's history, its take on current conditions and its broad-mindedness when it comes to manager selection.