ACG sells FoFs, secondaries arm to focus on directs

European private equity firm ACG Group has shifted its focus to direct investments after selling its fund of funds and secondaries arm to global asset manager Oddo BHF.

The Paris-based unit, which will change its name from ACG Capital to ODDO BHF Private Equity, has €1.8 billion of assets under management across fund of funds, secondaries and dedicated fund strategies, according to its website. Its vehicles include Acto Mezzanine II, a €210 million 2014-vintage targeting western Europe, and ACG Europe VIII, a €150 million 2011-vintage pan-European secondaries vehicle, according to PEI data.

ACG Management, the firm’s Marseille-headquartered directs business, will continue to provide seed, innovation, development and transmission capital to unlisted French companies. Launched in 2000 it has managed or advised more than €840 million through consumer vehicles, mandates and institutional private equity funds as of 30 June, according to its website.

The deal marks Oddo’s maiden foray into private equity, a spokeswoman for the firm told Private Equity International. Oddo aims to diversify the private equity unit’s investor base to high-net-worth investors, private banks and family offices, and it plans to launch new private equity strategies in future.

Oddo BHF manages more than €100 billion of assets and operates across three strategies; private banking, asset management and corporate and investment banking, according to its website. The firm has more than 2,300 staff in France and Germany and 27 offices globally, including in Asia-Pacific, North America and Africa.