AXA PE buys BdW

AXA Private Equity’s Secondary Fund II has acquired the balance sheet commitments of Betiligungsgesellschaft fur die deutsche Wirtschaft (BdW) from a consortium led by Dresdner Bank.

AXA Private Equity has bought balance sheet commitments of approximately €200m, which means its Secondary Fund II is now between 80% and 90% committed. However, Stephan Illenberger says the private equity business has other pockets where some of these assets could be housed. AXA Secondary Fund II is a €480m fund.

BdW was 45% owned by Dresdner with the remaining minority shareholders holding a combined 55% share. Dresdner has slimmed down its private equity exposure so that now all rests in Allianz Capital Partners, whereas AMB Generali, Potektor Lebensversicherungs and Merck Finck all either had no desire to replace Dresdner’s interest or wanted to move away from private equity entirely.

Illenberger says: “So far we have purchased the assets concerning the team and we will make offers to some of the members of the team.”

The deal has been signed and approved and closing, at this stage a formality, will take place before the end of January.