Ardian deploys 50% of Fund VI

Ardian has deployed roughly 50 percent of its latest secondaries fund, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The firm declined to comment.

Ardian Secondary Fund VI closed on $9 billion in April. The firm anticipated investing the fund over a five-year period, at around $1.5 billion per year, managing partner Benoît Verbrugghe told Secondaries Investor in May.

“We are staying selective with the fund, because dealflow is very important; we have the ability to select, to pick and choose the assets that we like,” Verbrugghe added.

At the time, about 20 percent of the fund had been deployed across three transactions, including the $1.3 billion purchase of private equity fund stakes from GE Capital.

“At the beginning of the fund year of course we want to deploy money but we are not in a race.”

Aside from its investing pace, the Paris-based firm that’s formerly known as AXA Private Equity has also been growing its secondaries assets under management. In July the firm revealed its secondaries assets grew to a record $15.9 billion in 2013, nearly double the $8.6 billion it had in 2012. By comparison, Ardian had $8 billion of secondaries assets in 2011 and $4 billion in 2010.