StepStone snaps up Greenpark Capital

US-based secondaries firm StepStone Group has acquired UK-headquartered peer Greenpark Capital, it has emerged.

Greenpark Capital announced the take-over on its website. “Greenpark Capital is delighted to announce that it has merged its private equity secondary activities into the business of global private equity firm Stepstone Group,” it said.

Financial details of the transaction were undisclosed.

StepStone and Greenpark did not respond to a request for comment at press time.

The merger comes after Greenpark struggled to raise capital for its most recent fund. In April, it emerged Greenpark closed its fourth fund on $500 million. The fund was said to have originally been targeting $1.2 billion, and is listed as such in some industry databases; however, a source close to the matter suggested at the time the fund’s target had actually been between $850 million and $900 million.

After spending more than two years on the fundraising trail and having had a few rolling closes, Greenpark decided to bring the fundraising to an end in the third quarter so it could focus on investing, the source said at the time.

It is unclear what will happen to Greenpark’s emerging market secondaries vehicle, for which it won a mandate from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2011. That fund, which was targeting $500 million, would be anchored by the IFC with a $100 million commitment, PEI reported at the time.

Greenpark Capital was founded in 2000 by Marleen Groen, formerly of Coller Capital. She worked at Coller between 1996 and 2000, according to her LinkedIn page, as an investment director and board director.

In April, StepStone raised $450 million for its StepStone Secondary Opportunities Fund II. The firm has approximately $10 billion of assets under management, according to its website.