Ardian buys $750m Alaska portfolio – exclusive

Ardian has emerged as the buyer of a portfolio of stakes put on the market by Alaska Permanent Fund.

The Paris-headquartered firm has agreed to acquire private equity stakes worth around $750 million, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Pricing details are not clear.

UK public filings showed that the stakes, which were acquired by the ASF Pollock vehicle,  were in funds including the 2006-vintage, €2.26 billion Montagu III; the 2011-vintage, €2.55 billion Montagu IV; and the 2013-vintage, €1.4 billion IK VII.

Secondaries Investor revealed in January that Alaska was aiming to offload a portfolio of private equity stakes worth as much as $1 billion, with Evercore brought in to handle the process.

First bids on the portfolio, which contains a diversified bundle of stakes by vintage, were due at the end of January. The portfolio contains a large fund commitment to a Blackstone fund, Secondaries Investor reported.

Ardian is investing out of its $14 billion ASF VII, which closed above its $9 billion target in April 2016, according to PEI data. The firm is expected to return to market in 2018 with an $8 billion fund dedicated to mature secondaries.

Alaska held $4.6 billion in private equity assets as of 28 February and its portfolio returned 19.25 percent gross in the year leading up to that date, according to a monthly performance report.

Ardian and Alaska Permanent Fund declined to comment.

– Alex Lynn contributed to this report.