Golding holds EUR 280m close for first secondaries fund

Golding Secondaries 2019 held a first close in March 2020. It has made 14 deals to date, encompassing more than 80 small- and mid-cap companies, according to a statement.

Asked about the rationale behind the launch of the new fund strategy, Richard Wilmes, managing director and head of secondaries at Golding, told Unquote: "We were ready to launch the strategy, but the timing was mainly down to client demand and the fact that the GP-led segment has evolved and become more prominent. We have a long heritage in primaries, we are GP-relationship-orientated, and this fits with the segments we are targeting." Half of the fund's deals to date have been made with managers that Golding has previously backed via its existing strategies, he added.

"We have done secondaries deals before from our co-mingled funds-of-funds for the past 10 years, so doing secondaries deals is nothing new for us, but having a dedicated fund is new," Wilmes said. "We will do both LP stakes and GP-leds, both for single assets and diversified portfolios, looking at high-quality deals in the small- and mid-cap segment."

The GP expects to launch the next fund in the strategy later in H1 2022, according to a statement. The fund will likely have a larger target than its predecessor, Wilmes told Unquote, while remaining true to its small- and mid-cap focus.

In addition to its new secondaries strategy, Golding manages funds-of-funds across buyouts and private debt. It launched its debut impact fund-of-funds in September 2021 with a EUR 300m target, as reported.

Investors
The fund's LP base is largely made up of existing investors in Golding's other strategy, although these were also joined by a number of new investors, Wilmes told Unquote. The majority of its LPs are from Germany, with some from neighbouring countries, and include pension funds, savings banks and family offices.

Investments
The fund is expected to make 20-25 deals in total and is around two-thirds deployed. Around 75% of its deals are expected to be in Europe, with the remainder in the US. It will provide equity tickets of EUR 10m-30m, although the fund can deploy up to EUR 75m alongside Golding's platform as a whole.

Although the fund will target both LP stakes and GP-leds, it does not have a set allocation for each type of transaction, Wilmes told Unquote. Instead, Golding will concentrate on building a balanced and diversified portfolio, he said.

"We have no sector allocations per se, but we are very much focused on stability," Wilmes said. "At the moment there are a lot of deals around in healthcare, technology and business services, which are very resilient. So resilience and growth are key criteria when we pick sectors. For LP stakes, we will look at small- and mid-cap buyout funds."

Its GP-led deals to date include an undisclosed group of four software and technology companies based in Britain; the group has seen its operating earnings almost double since the completion of the transaction, according to a statement.

People
Golding Capital Partners – Richard Wilmes (managing director, head of secondaries).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Secondaries
• DACH
• UK / Ireland
• Golding Capital Partners
• Germany
• Secondaries