Carlyle hits hard cap on Europe IV; raises $4.7 bln in Q2

Carlyle Group raised a total of 3.75 billion euros, or about $4.1 billion, for Carlyle Europe Partners IV, earmarked for upper mid-market buyouts across several industries. Support came from more than 140 limited partners hailing from 35 countries.

“We’ve had the best fundraising in our firm’s history outside the anomalous 2007-2008 period,” David Rubenstein, co-CEO, said on the firm’s second-quarter conference call with Wall Street analysts.

Carlyle Group said that all told its private equity unit drew in $1.9 billion in commitments for several funds during the quarter, including Carlyle Europe Partners IV, Carlyle Japan Partners III, Carlyle U.S. Equity Opportunity Fund II (mid-market buyout fund), and Carlyle Europe Technology Partners III.

Carlyle Group’s Global Market Strategies group, backing credit, equities and alternative instruments, raised $1.2 billion during the quarter, while the firm’s real assets platform, backing real estate, power and other assets, raised $600 million. Carlyle Realty Partners VII, its primary real state fund aimed at North America, will close in the near future at its $4 billion cap, the firm said. At the same time, efforts to raise Carlyle Energy Mezzanine Opportunities Fund II are “going quite well,” Rubenstein said.

Asked about the fundraising pipeline, Rubenstein said attractive areas right now include distressed debt, core-plus real estate, growth investments in Asia, structured credit in Asia and infrastructure. Carlyle Group plans to hold its annual investment conference in September, with about 1,000 people expected.

“We tend to present new ideas to investors there; I expect we’ll have areas ready,” he said.

In wrapping up Carlyle Europe Partners IV, Marco De Benedetti, managing director and co-head of Carlyle Europe Partners, said the firm sees compelling investment opportunities and appetite for the region from LPs, “despite several years of macro-economic uncertainty,” according to a statement.

Gregor Boehm, managing director and co-head, cited past Europe fund investments such asTalaris, Moncler, RAC and Axalta as contributors to the firm’s track record. The team plans to “continue to make transformational investments in Europe that add value and help companies grow successfully,” he said. Carlyle Europe Partners IV’s first four portfolio companies are Homair Vacances, Custom Sensors and Technology, Sematic and Palacios.