Australian LPs sell Apax fund stake

Three Australian limited partners have sold their stakes in Apax Europe VII, according to UK regulatory notices.

The LPs are the Victorian Workcover Authority, the Transport Accident Commission and the Emergency Superannuation Scheme.

Apax Europe VII is a 2007-vintage fund that raised €11.2 billion and is Apax’s largest fund to date, according to the firm’s website. Other LPs in the fund include the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and the West Midlands Pension Fund, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division.

Fund VII invests in medium and large-sized pan-European buyouts. Targeted industries include consumer, financial and business services, healthcare, media, technology and telecom and retail.

Last month, the fund exited health information technology company TriZetto Corporation in a $2.7 billion all-cash deal. Apax initially acquired the company for $1.4 billion in 2008 using Fund VII and Apax Europe VI.

In June, the firm sold outsourced sales and marketing service company Advantage Sales & Marketing to private equity firms Leonard Green & Partners and CVC Capital Partners. The sale generated a 4x return for Apax, according to a source familiar with the matter. Apax made the initial investment using Fund VII in 2010.

Fund VII was generating a 1.2x net multiple as of 31 March, according to an interim report from the Standard Life European Private Equity Trust.

Apax was unavailable to comment by press time.

The fund stakes were sold to Ubar Investment Holdings and PEC Lawson Holdings. Ubar is reportedly a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and little is known about PEC Lawson Holdings, except that it is a Delaware-listed corporation.

Last month, the group of three LPs sold their stakes in €4.25 billion EQT Fund V and $2.9 billion Actis Emerging Markets 3 to the same buyers.