Strategic Partners paid 2% discount in $800m Ardian sale – exclusive

Strategic Partners paid close to par for a portfolio of stakes held worth around $800 million in Ardian‘s 2010-vintage secondaries fund.

The Blackstone unit acquired the stakes held in Ardian’s AXA Secondary Fund V at a 2 percent discount to December net asset value, according to an investor document seen by Secondaries Investor. The portfolio represents around a quarter of ASF V’s NAV and is made up of more mature assets, the document shows.

UK regulatory filings show Strategic Partners used its 2015-vintage $7.5 billion Fund VII to acquire the stakes, which include Carlyle Europe Partners II and Carlyle Europe Partners III.

The $7.1 billion ASF V launched in December 2010 and closed in August 2012, exceeding its target by $3.6 billion, according to PEI data. The fund delivered a since-inception net multiple of 1.67x and a net internal rate of return of 18 percent as of March, as Secondaries Investor reported in September.

According to an investor presentation prepared by Carlyle in August, the 2003-vintage €1.8 billion Carlyle Europe Partners II has achieved a multiple of 2x and a gross internal rate of return of 43 percent. Its follow-up, the 2007-vintage, €5.3 billion Europe Partners III, has returned 2.2x and a gross IRR of 19 percent.

Investors in ASF V include Florida State Board of Administration with a $100 million commitment, New York City Fire Department Pension Fund with $40 million and Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System with $75 million, according to PEI data.

This is not the first time Ardian has sold from its ASF funds. In March, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board emerged as the buyer of a portfolio of pre-crisis private equity stakes held in Ardian’s 2006-vintage secondaries vehicle worth around $1 billion, and the firm also brought stakes held in its first three secondaries funds to market in the second half of last year.

Ardian has also sold to Strategic Partners previously: in May the firm offloaded around $700 million in tail-end stakes held in its AXA Private Equity Fund of Funds II, AXA Primary Fund UK III and AXA Primary Fund Europe III, as Secondaries Investor reported.

Ardian declined to comment. Strategic Partners did not return a request for comment.