Case Studies

The seller was looking to reduce their number of GP relationships as part of a shift in strategy to focus on core relationships with greater access to direct investments and co-investments. The portfolio comprised of top quality buyout managers, principally in North America and Western Europe. Ardian was able to pre-empt the auction process and had a specific angle with the buyer, having already transacted on a $940m portfolio of 12 Buyout LP interests with the seller two years previously.

In 2014, Ardian was contacted by the Seller regarding the opportunity to purchase interests in a selection of direct assets. The Seller contacted Ardian on a proprietary basis due to 2 previous transactions successfully closed together. Based on strong knowledge of the assets, more than 90% of which were held in existing Ardian funds and monitored on a quarterly basis, Ardian was able to construct a portfolio for purchase with an optimal mix of upside and liquidity.

The Private Equity team within the Sovereign Wealth Fund had the long term objective to transition into a third party asset manager and establish a diverse and international investor base. Even though the Private Equity team had a strong investment and proven sourcing capabilities, they needed Ardian’s help to transform its capital structure. Following the successful secondary sale of its portfolio, the Private Equity team and Ardian created a proper GP / LP structure with two new fund vehicles being managed by the Private Equity team as the GP, and built a strong investor base of 17 top international LPs.

The seller was looking for liquidity on a portfolio of co-investments in order to free up capital to deploy into new opportunities. Having partnered with this seller 3 times in the past, we were their preferred party to explore this transaction with them, which we were able to complete on a fully bilateral basis.

The seller was over allocated to infrastructure and seeking a strategic transaction to sell a strip of their older funds with the goal of releasing some capital that could be re-invested in other funds or direct infrastructure assets. The portfolio was comprised of top quality infrastructure managers, principally in North America. The seller decided to work with Ardian on a bilateral basis given our strong relationship with the GPs and certainty of execution.

The team was formed in 2013 with a first secondary transaction, stapled with primary money for fund investments and co-investments, which facilitated the spin-off of the team. A year later, the seller engaged in the sale of a second portfolio that Ardian bought a $904m portfolio of 32 Buyout LP interests and 8 co-investments with new money to be deployed in fund and co-investments in order to further sustain the development of the team.

This proprietary transaction was an opportunity to lead a tender offer for LP interests in a single fund, managed by a well established and recognized GP. The portfolio was composed of 1 Buyout LP interest consisting of 12 European underlying assets well diversified in term of sectors. This transaction is a repeat Seller / Situation, as Ardian already backed a tender offer for this GP in 2016 (Project Phantom).

A US public pension fund was looking to reduce the number of funds and GPs in their portfolio in order to focus the efforts of the small PE team on the core relationships. The portfolio for sale was comprised of top tier buyout managers, principally in North America, Europe and Asia. Ardian’s strong existing coverage and knowledge of the funds allowed it to perform extensive due diligence on the underlying portfolio and to ultimately execute the transaction in a semi-broken auction process. The seller decided to work with Ardian given its certainty and speed of execution as well as the strong support received by the underlying GPs with which Ardian had established relationships.