Wisconsin ups commitments to Lindsay Goldberg, Providence Equity

  • Commits additional $100 mln to Lindsay Goldberg’s fifth fund
  • Pledges $150 mln more to Providence Equity Partners VIII
  • Makes four new commitments to funds from Blackstone, others

The Wisconsin state pension system boosted its commitments to Lindsay Goldberg and Providence Equity Partners in the first quarter.

State of Wisconsin Investment Board committed an additional $100 million to Lindsay Goldberg’s fifth fund, which is targeting $4 billion, said spokesperson Vicki Hearing. The board previously pledged $100 million to the fund late last year.

SWIB also pledged an additional $150 million to Providence Equity Partners VIII, which is targeting $5 billion. Wisconsin previously committed $100 million to Providence Equity Partners’ eighth fund during the first quarter of 2017.

It’s not clear why the system increased its original commitments to the funds. Occasionally, funds will offer bigger allocations to LPs as fundraising progresses.

Separately, SWIB made a number of new commitments to private equity in the first quarter:

  • It pledged $250 million to Blackstone Group’s Blackstone Capital Partners VIII, which is targeting$20 billion.
  • It committed $50 million to Blackstone’s credit platform, GSO Capital Partners’ Energy Select Opportunities Fund II, which closed earlier this month at $4.5 billion.
  • It pledged 45 million euros ($50.5 million) to Gilde Buy-Out Partners’ sixth fund, which focuses on European middle-market companies.
  • Finally, it committed $30 million to Tower Arch Capital’s second fund, which closed on its hard cap of $450 million.

Private equity and debt make up 9 percent of Wisconsin’s $118 billion portfolio.

Action Item: SWIB Communication Manager Vicki Hearing can be reached at  vicki.hearing@swib.state.wi.us.