Further Global, led by ex-Carlyle exec Sarkozy, targets $1.25bn for Fund II

Further Global's latest deal, announced in January, is the pending acquisition alongside TowerBrook Capital Partners of insurer ProSight Global for $586m.

Further Global Capital Management, founded by Olivier Sarkozy, Carlyle Group’s former financial services chief, returned to the market with a second buyout offering.

Further Global Capital Partners II and a parallel pool are seeking $1.25 billion, according to Form D fundraising documents published this week. No commitments were secured as of the date of the filing. The placement agent is UBS Securities.

Fund II is targeting the same amount as Further Global’s 2017-vintage debut vehicle. It is not known if Fund I reached the goal, as its last Form D filing said it brought in about $444 million. The New York private equity firm managed just over $770 million in assets on a discretionary basis as of December 31, its Form ADV filings show.

Limited partners who disclosed Fund I investments include University of California Regents Endowment Fund. It committed $200 million.

Sarkozy, half-brother of ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy, was a Carlyle managing director and head of its global financial services group prior to leaving in 2016. He brought that experience to Further Global, designing a control-oriented strategy for investing in the financial services industry.

Further Global invests $75 million to $200 million or more in deals engaging companies situated across key financial services sub-sectors, according to its website. Preferred opportunities are in wealth and asset management, insurance, depository institutions, specialty finance, business services, payments and financial technology and capital markets.

Further Global has so far backed seven businesses and will soon back an eighth. In January, it and TowerBrook Capital Partners announced an agreement to buy property and casualty insurer ProSight Global for $586 million. TowerBrook will acquire a majority stake.

The ProSight deal comes on the heels of an active 2020 for Further Global. It made three investments last year, one of them financial consultancy Duff & Phelps, recently rebranded as Kroll. A consortium led by Stone Point Capital and Further Global bought a majority of the business from Permira for $4.2 billion.

Sarkozy oversees a partnership team of five. Richard Venn and Susan Ciccarone joined at inception from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Goldman Sachs, respectively. So too did Max Baumrin, who worked with Sarkozy at Carlyle. Eric Leathers joined in 2018 from TPG.

Other PE firms specializing in financial services include Aquiline Capital Partners, Century Equity Partners, Lightyear Capital, Lovell Minnick Partners and Stone Point. Lightyear is also in fundraising mode, so far collecting $1.27 billion for a fifth offering, Buyouts reported.

Further Global did not respond to a request for comment on this story.