Staff Writer

AXA Private Equity continues to capitalise on regulations which make private equity assets less attractive to banks, sealing its fourth secondaries deal to take the value of its recent portfolio acquisitions to $5.1bn.

The New York-based private equity real estate secondaries firm has entered into its first student housing deal with the 80% equity interest purchase of two assets for $30m.

The latest Global Private Equity Barometer conducted by Coller Capital shows that 68 percent of Asia Pacific LPs will be buyers in the secondaries market over the next two years, while 42 percent of them will be on the sellers' side.

Josh Cleveland has joined Clairvue Capital Partners as the firm starts to target real estate secondaries as well as recapitalisations.

French group AXA Private Equity, led by Dominique Senequier, has sealed the acquisition of a $1.7bn portfolio of assets from Citigroup, 14 months after a similar deal with Bank of America.

The Japanese fund of funds manager is in the market for a third Asian vehicle targeting secondaries opportunities in the region. It has a target commitment of up to $200m.

The Zanbato Group is beta-testing a website that matches buyers and sellers of infrastructure assets and fund interests. Zanbato was founded last year by Stanford Professor Ryan Orr and is backed by Macquarie veteran Murray Bleach.

In an exclusive interview with Andy Thomson, former Babcock & Brown global infrastructure head Peter Hofbauer discusses his new role at the helm of Hermes GPE’s infrastructure operation and his interest in secondaries.

Paul Capital, HarbourVest, LGT and Axiom have committed around $400m to NewQuest Asia, the spin-out of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Private Equity Asia.

Landmark Partners' chief executive officer, Francisco Borges, says at $718m, Landmark Real Estate Fund VI is the largest single-pooled real estate secondary fund ever raised, while the market is still in the ‘early innings’ of the cycle.