Ardian’s giant secondaries fund terms revealed – exclusive

Details of ASF VIII's carried interest, management fee and GP commitment were disclosed in a document seen by Secondaries Investor.

Details of Ardian‘s latest secondaries fund, which is seeking the largest amount ever for the strategy, were revealed in documents seen by Secondaries Investor.

The Paris-headquartered firm’s ASF VIII vehicle, which is seeking $12 billion in addition to $6 billion in co-investment capital, charges 15 percent carried interest on an 8 percent preferred return, an investor document shows.

ASF VIII’s management fee is 1 percent of committed capital during the investment period, which drops to 0.75 percent of the lesser of the fund’s net asset value and the acquisition costs of the fund’s assets.

Ardian’s GP commitment will be at least 0.5 percent of total commitments and the fund’s life is 10 years from initial closing date with three one-year extensions, the document shows.

ASF VIII launched in the first half of last year and has collected at least $12 billion so far for the main vehicle, according to Secondaries Investor data. Investors in the fund so far include the California State Teachers’ Retirement System with a $500 million commitment, Florida Retirement System Trust Fund with $200 million and State of Michigan Retirement Systems with $150 million.

The firm almost doubled its secondaries investment volume last year as its US fund of funds team celebrated its biggest year ever, according to its Activity Report 2018. Globally, it invested $11.1 billion across 25 secondaries transactions in 2018, compared with $6.4 billion across 14 deals the previous year.

A spokesman for Ardian declined to comment.