First close for Henderson Private Capital

Henderson Private Capital, the private equity arm of Henderson Global Investors, has announced the first close of its Henderson Global Fund-of-Funds I at $200million. The fund aims to close by year-end, market conditions permitting, and has a final target of $400 million.

The fund is being managed by teams in London, New York, Singapore and Sydney and is headed by Sanjiv Kapur and Jan Faber. Investments will be made in up to 35 top-tier private equity funds in the US, Europe and Asia. To date, the fund has already made commitments to nine funds, totaling $99.8 million. Funds in the portfolio span key stages of private equity in all global regions and include investments in US and European buyouts and US and European venture capital.

Sanjiv Kapur noted the partially committed nature of the fund offers investors immediate exposure to a high quality, diversified portfolio of private equity managers from day one. Also he said that by limiting the number of funds in the portfolio to under 35 top-quality managers, investors will have the opportunity to outperform the returns of the large, and often over-diversified, global fund-of-funds offerings.

Jan Faber adds: “The Fund will have an exposure to a significant number of smaller sized underlying funds. Many private equity managers have exploited conditions during the last few years by growing fund sizes too rapidly, resulting in a loss of focus and a subsequent drift in their investment strategy. We prefer managers that have raised funds that are sized appropriately for their strategy and resources.”

Henderson Global Fund-of-Funds I is the third private equity fund to be launched by the Henderson Private Capital team in the last six months. Henderson European Partners is a E400 million fund focusing on pan-European businesses with strong growth opportunities and Henderson Asia Pacific Equity Partners I is a $200 million fund targeting Asian Pacific businesses looking for growth capital.