LPs

LACERA continues co-investment build-out with $30m alongside Access Holdings

The pension system has been steadily growing its co-investment and secondaries program over the last year, and plans to do more in the future.

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Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association made a $30 million co-investment with Access Holdings, the pension confirmed to Buyouts.

The $65.4 billion pension is already an LP in Access’s first private equity fund, which recently closed at $340 million, according to sister title PE Hub.

Access founder and managing partner Kevin McAllister told Buyouts last month the firm had also raised about $200 million in co-investment capital to put into the first two platform companies in the fund: End of Life Services/Cremation and Express Car Wash.

LACERA senior investment officer Christopher Wagner told Buyouts the pension had invested $40 million in the fund, Access Holdings Fund I, but declined to identify the company in which it had co-invested.

According to documents posted on its website, the pension paid just under $700,000 in total fees to the fund in the 2019-20 fiscal year. The original fund commitment is listed as $15 million, but Wagner told Buyouts the pension had increased it.

Baltimore-based Access raised its fund from 15 LPs and closed well over its $250 million target. As of the end of 2020, it had already deployed about $100 million of the fund.

Access was founded in 2013 as an independent sponsor and raised more than $280 million in that capacity. It describes its investment strategy as “hands-on,” operating a concentrate portfolio of five to seven platforms per fund. It targets “niche essential service-based industries with stable demand characteristics.”

LACERA has been steadily growing its co-investment program. Last year, it expanded its options for co-investment partners. After the program performed well, it also increased the amount of capital staff can put into co-investments and secondaries.

Last month, the fund announced $50 million in co-investments with two more of its GPs, Lightyear Capital and Leonard Green & Partners.

Access Holdings did not respond to a request for comment.

Action Item: read the report out from the February 10 LACERA Board of Investments meeting executive session here.