Firms & Funds

The Alberta Investment Management Corp. will spend as much as C$700 million ($715 million) on private equity acquisitions over the next year, and as much as C$2 billion over the next four years, Reuters reported. AimCo manages about C$70 billion in public pensions and other government funds for the oil-rich western Canadian province of Alberta.

Australian buyout shop Archer Capital is planning to raise A$1.2 billion ($1.27 billion) in a new fund later this year, Reuters reported. The firm will likely be in the market for its Archer Fund 5 in the final quarter of 2011. Archer has roughly A$2 billion under management, and its current fund is about two-thirds invested.

The Carlyle Group is planning to raise a $950 million fund for South American investments, Reuters reported, citing news from Bloomberg. Carlyle will inject about $730 million from institutional investors for the private equity fund, according to the report. Banco do Brasil SA will commit about $220 million to a related partnership targeting investments in Brazil, Reuters wrote.

New Mountain Finance Corp. said it has closed its $100 million IPO. The closed-end investment company sold about 7.3 million shares at $13.75 each. Goldman, Sachs & Co., Wells Fargo Securities and Morgan Stanley are joint-lead bookrunners on the deal. Underwriters on the deal have the option to buy another 1.1 million of shares. New Mountain Finance, a BDC, is an affiliate of New Mountain Capital, the New York buyout firm.

Peruvian firm Nexus Group has closed its international institutional fund, NG Capital Partners I, at $320 million. This exceeded the planned $250 million fundraising target, and hit the hard cap of $320 million for institutional limited partner commitments, the firm announced. Shearman & Sterling LLP served as legal counsel to Nexus Group. MVision Private Equity Advisors acted as the placement agent for NG Capital Partners I.

Palm Beach Capital said it has raised $133.5 million with its third fund. The firm invests in lower mid-market companies located mainly in the state of Florida.

Tokyo-based financial services firm SBI Holdings and Abu Dhabi-owned Invest AD will invest $100 million in a new private equity fund focused on acquisitions in Turkey, Reuters reported. The two firms will each contribute $50 million to the fund, which will focus on deals in consumer goods, retail, services and pharmaceuticals and healthcare, Reuters said. The two companies set up a $100 million Africa fund last September.

TA Associates announced it will establish operations in the Asia Pacific region. It has hired Edward F. Sippel as managing principal—Asia Pacific to open and lead a new office in Hong Kong. TA also announced that it has hired Jason Tan, who will serve as director of China and report to Sippel.