AIG Buys Dresdner’s PE Assets

In what may become another record year for secondary transactions, AIG Global Investment Group (AIGGIG) late last month acquired the private equity assets of Dresdner Banks’ Institutional Restructuring Unit (IRU).

The deal is the first secondary buy for AIG, which usually invests as a limited partner in funds.

Neither side would disclose the sale price, though the private equity portfolio has $1.4 billion in original commitments. The portfolio consists of 150 fund commitments in North American and European funds.

IRU Chief Executive Jan Kvarnstrm said in a statement that Dresdner would exit nearly all of its private equity investments with the sale.

About two-thirds of the funds are held by firms based in the United States, and the rest are divided between Europe and Asia. The firms did not disclose a breakdown of assets among venture capital, buyouts and other funds.

Dresdner Bank, which is wholly owned by Munich-based Allianz, has been shedding its private equity assets steadily since it consolidated much of them into the IRU. Last year, Dresdner closed a $90 million deal with Coller Capital for a 22-company venture portfolio. The deal was a management spinout with former Dresdner investment professionals managing the assets independently as Annex Capital and Coller serving as a limited partner.

Earlier this year, the Allianz board put on hold a prospective sale of $1 billion in private equity assets held by Dresdner Bank. AlpInvest, HarbourVest Partners and Lexington Partners were among the potential buyers. The deal would involve up to 100 private equity funds.

The IRU has not been the only private equity clearinghouse for Dresdner affiliates. Dresdner subsidiary Dresdner Kleinwort recently announced it sold the general partnership of the Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Emerging Europe Fund to Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm Darby Overseas Investments. The price of the transaction was not disclosed. The fund closed in 2000 with capital commitments of more than $220 million. Its limited partners included the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and Dresdner Bank.

In November, AIGGIG closed AIG Private Equity Portfolio III (PEP III), a group of three fund-of-funds with $239 million. The three funds-of-funds are focused on U.S. buyout, non-U.S. buyout and venture capital investments, secondary investment fund-of-funds and a direct investment fund.

Email Matthew.Sheahan@thomson.com