Lexington collects $6bn for Fund VIII – exclusive

Commitments include $50m from the New Hampshire Retirement System and $40m from the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board.

Lexington Partners has collected at least $6 billion for its eighth secondaries fund, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Lexington Capital Partners VIII launched in September 2013 with an $8 billion target. It had collected more than $3 billion as of March.

Lexington declined to comment.

Recently the fund received $40 million from the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board. The New Hampshire Retirement System also committed $50 million to the fund.

Other limited partners include the New York City Employees’ Retirement System and the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division.

Fund VIII has already deployed about $1.25 billion, a source with knowledge of the situation disclosed.

In August, Lexington acquired 80 percent of Citigroup’s $1.5 billion stake in Metalmark Capital Partners II, a fund in which Lexington was already an investor.

Earlier this year Lexington and AlpInvest Partners agreed to back the spin-out of One Equity Partners from JPMorgan Chase. The pair agreed to acquire JPMorgan’s interests in 50 percent of the portfolio companies backed by One Equity. The portfolio was valued at $4.5 billion as of mid-2013.

Lexington also worked with Newbury Partners to complete the restructuring of GMT Communications’ €365 million Fund II, giving the 2000-vintage fund a new lease of life.

Lexington’s previous secondaries fund closed on $7 billion, well above its $5 billion target in 2011. Fund VII received commitments from more than 200 LPs in 20 countries. Park Hill was the fund’s placement agent.