Adams Street picks up Charterhouse stakes from US endowment

Adams Street Partners has acquired a stake in a European buyout fund from William Marsh Rice University amid a rise in disposals from endowments and foundations.

The global investment firm has bought the university’s interest in Charterhouse Capital Partners IX (CCP IX), according to a UK regulatory filing. CCP IX, managed by London buyout firm Charterhouse Capital Partners, closed on its €4 billion target in March 2009 after about three months of fundraising, according to PEI’s Research & Analytics.

CCP IX focuses on buyouts in western Europe and made a 3x money return when it made its seventh exit from the fund by selling European insulation manufacturer Armacell to Blackstone and KIRKBI last November. The fund holds six remaining investments – Bartec, Comexposium, Doc Generici, Mirion Technologies, Nuova Castelli and Skillsoft – and had a 19 percent net internal rate of return (IRR) and a 1.6x multiple as of 30 September, according to a source familiar with the matter.

According to the filing, Adams Street used several vehicles to acquire the stake, including:

• Adams Street 2014 US Fund
• Adams Street 2015 US Fund
• Adams Street 2015 Non-US Fund
• Adams Street Global Secondary Fund 5
• Adams Street – VGV Secondary Target Mandate Fund
• Adams Street – SCERS Fund

Rice University has ceased to be a limited partner in the fund, according to the filing.

Rice Management Company, the university’s endowment fund, had a target allocation of 16 percent of its $5.6 billion in assets to private equity and venture capital, according to its Fiscal Year 2015 Endowment Update. The endowment was established in 2009 as an internal company to focus exclusively on managing the university’s investments, according to its website.

Endowments and foundations were the most active sellers on the secondaries market in 2015, representing about a quarter of the market by number of sellers, according to a recent report by Greenhill Cogent.

Adams Street and Rice University did not return requests for comment. Charterhouse declined to comment.