
Unigestion's Euro Choice Secondary II hits €300m hard-cap
Unigestion has held a final close for Euro Choice Secondary II (ECS II) on its €300m hard-cap, surpassing its €225m target.
The fund attracted commitments from 59 LPs to hold a final close 20 months after its original announcement and six months after its first close on €120m.
ECS II will target discount investment opportunities in European mid-market private equity funds and portfolios.
It has an eight-year life and a three-year investment period.
Since the merger with Akina, Unigestion has kept the secondaries strategies separate. ECS II is a continuation of what used to be Akina Partners' secondaries strategy, focusing exclusively on Europe. Unigestion also held a final close for its global secondaries strategy, Unigestion Secondaries Opportunities IV, on €300m in December 2017.
However, Unigestion will be launching a combined fund-of-funds primary strategy later in Q1, Unquote understands.
Investors
The raise attracted commitments from LPs from Australia, Africa, North America, Canada and Europe.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Pension Plan made a €20m commitment to the fund, while Finnish insurance company Tapiola Life and Australian pension fund Sunsuper also invested, according to Unquote Data. Unigestion generally makes a GP commitment of between 0.5-1% in its funds.
Investments
The fund has deployed €80m across four investments. These include a French growth portfolio of eight small and mid-cap software companies, a direct secondary in a Nordic buy-and-build portfolio, a German fund restructuring of four mid-market companies and a stapled secondary with a UK-based financial services investor. The four deals have been acquired at an average discount of 20% to fair market value, resulting in a gross TVPI of 1.4x, according to Unigestion.
People
Unigestion – Christian Böhler (head of European secondary investments).
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