BlackRock racks up $2.4bn for fund

BlackRock Private Equity Partners has raised $2.4 billion for its debut secondaries and liquidity solutions fund, beating its $1.5 billion target. Also, additional secondaries capital was raised alongside the fund. The fund’s limited partners include public and private pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, family offices and high-net-worth individuals.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BlackRock Private Equity Partners today announced that it has successfully closed on over USD$3 billion in total capital commitments for its debut Secondaries & Liquidity Solutions (SLS) strategy. Capital raised includes USD$2.4 billion for its Secondaries & Liquidity Solutions Fund (the “Fund”), exceeding its initial target of USD$1.5 billion, and additional secondaries capital raised alongside the Fund. Together, this represents the largest fundraise for an inaugural private equity secondaries strategy globally to date.1

More than 70 institutional investors around the world committed capital to the fundraise, including public and private pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. Institutional investors who participated in the fundraise include new and existing investors to BlackRock Private Equity Partners as well as BlackRock Alternative Investors.

“The success of this debut secondaries fundraise demonstrates the confidence our investors have placed in our strategy, which leverages the unique and expansive capabilities of the broader BlackRock platform, paired with our differentiated focus on mid-sized transactions,” said Steve Lessar and Konnin Tam, co-heads of the BlackRock Secondaries & Liquidity Solutions team.

“Private markets growth is driving further secondaries supply, and we believe that the secondary market is poised for strong future growth as limited partners and general partners alike seek more creative ways to access liquidity and realize value,” added Veena Isaac, managing director of the BlackRock Secondaries & Liquidity Solutions team.

BlackRock’s Secondaries & Liquidity Solutions (SLS) strategy seeks to capture attractive opportunities in mid-sized secondary transactions by providing liquidity solutions to limited partners and general partners of private markets firms. SLS was formed as the dedicated secondaries team within BlackRock Private Equity Partners with the hiring of Steve Lessar and Konnin Tam, co-heads of SLS, in 2018, in addition to Veena Isaac, managing director, in 2019. Today, the platform has built an experienced and tenured investment team that has a shared history of collaboration in secondaries investing over the past two decades. SLS has completed over 15 transactions across various secondary transaction types, deploying a significant amount of capital around the markets dislocation at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As a leader in private markets investing, we have seen how secondary transactions have evolved from being an attractive segment of the private equity industry to a more widely adopted strategy for portfolio management and diversification across the full spectrum of alternative asset classes,” said Edwin Conway, Global Head of BlackRock Alternative Investors. “We are pleased to have developed a secondaries offering that will help to deliver differentiated investment solutions to investors across our alternatives platform.”

The Fund seeks to take advantage of an evolving secondaries market that is well-positioned to capitalize on various forms of market dislocation, as well as structural growth drivers around a maturing global private equity space. SLS is highly selective in seeking top risk-return opportunities across both traditional and non-traditional secondaries, including single and multi-fund portfolios, manager-led restructurings, and other opportunistic investments.

BlackRock Alternative Investors provides a comprehensive range of private equity strategies and solutions, including BlackRock Private Equity Partners, which encompasses commingled private equity programs and custom separate accounts focused on investing in Primary Funds, Direct Co-investments, and Secondaries through the Secondaries & Liquidity Solutions team. BlackRock Long Term Private Capital is the firm’s direct private equity strategy. Together, these private equity strategies manage over USD$26 billion in client capital and commitments as of December 31, 2020.

About BlackRock Alternative Investors
BlackRock Alternative Investors serve investors seeking outperformance in real estate, infrastructure, private equity, credit, hedge funds and alternative solutions. We strive to bring our investors the highest quality investments by drawing upon our global footprint, superior execution capabilities and position as a preferred partner. BlackRock manages USD$259 billion in alternative investments and commitments on behalf of clients worldwide as of December 31, 2020.