Landmark had planned a final close for the first quarter this year and made it in just under the buzzer, officially closing the fund on March 31, the source said. The firm raised $1.2 billion in commitments for its prior fund, which closed in 2006.
Merrill Lynch served as the placement agent for Landmark Equity Partners XIV, which had a hard cap of $2.3 billion.
As of August 2009, Landmark had deployed 10% of the fund. Amid a flurry of secondary market excitement last year, a number of secondary funds came into the market. Early last year, Goldman Sachs and Harbourvest Partners closed large dedicated secondary funds, raising $5.25 billion and $2.9 billion, respectively. Other large players have remained in the market for a longer period of time.
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Separately, Landmark initially sought last year to raise $400 million toward a new hybrid secondaries fund called Hybrid Secondary Fund last year. The vehicle was designed to invest in private equity funds which are less than 50% funded. In August, the firm decided to shelve that fund for the time being and focus fund-raising efforts exclusively on its traditional secondary vehicle. —Erin Griffith