Akina nears close on €225m secondaries fund – exclusive

The European mid-market investor has promoted four of its staff to partner, including secondaries chief Christian Böhler.

European fund investor Akina will next week announce a second close on its latest secondaries fund – Euro Choice Secondary II – which has a target size of €225 million.

The firm held an initial close at the end of June, said principal David Schoch, and is due to hold a second close next week on “around half of the total”. Akina’s debut secondaries fund closed oversubscribed in early 2015 on €224 million.

Akina, which runs primary, secondaries and co-investment programmes, sees potential investment benefits from the UK’s vote to leave the EU.

“We have been giving careful consideration to the implications of Brexit,” Schoch told sister publication Private Equity International. “Since we already substantially reduced our UK exposure in the first quarter this year, we have come to the conclusion that we will see more opportunity than downside, particularly in the secondaries market. We have already seen sellers’ price expectations decreasing since Brexit, foremost in portfolio situations with significant UK or sterling exposure.”

Akina has around €2.3 billion under management. It is currently raising its sixth primary fund of funds, which has raised over €200 million towards a target size of €300 million. It is also raising a €150 million co-investment fund, for which it has so far collected around €75 million.

This week the firm promoted four of its staff to partner level, including secondaries head Christian Böhler. Böhler has been with the firm since 2010 when he joined from Lombard Odier. He also looks after the firm’s investment in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

The other three partner promotions were: Francesco Aldorisio, who runs the firm’s co-investment programmes and also covers Italy; Viktor Speckinger, who covers France and Iberia as well as originating direct investment opportunities; and Natalia Sigrist, who is in charge of Akina’s primary fund of funds investment programme.