BC Partners confirms close of Springer Nature deal

The continuation fund containing the academic publisher was more than €1bn in size.

BC Partners has closed a single-asset process on one of the world’s largest academic publishers.

Springer Nature has been transferred into a continuation vehicle with more than €1 billion in capital commitments, realising capital for investors and providing more runway for organic and inorganic growth, the London-based manager said in a statement.

“We look forward to continuing to support management in positioning this highly defensive and market leading business globally to capitalise on the significant growth prospects stemming from the transition to open access and open science,” said BC Partners’ partner Nikos Stathopoulos in the statement.

Secondaries Investor reported in April that Neuberger Berman was leading the deal, which was to include a substantial commitment from BC Partners’ most recent vehicle Fund XI. The New York-headquartered secondaries buyer was to invest €100 million, Secondaries Investor reported at the time.

The deal was set to price at 90 percent of net asset value based on a 31 December valuation date, which values the company at around $7 billion, Secondaries Investor noted in April. Evercore ran the deal out of its London office.

Springer Nature was held in the 2011-vintage BC European Capital IX, which raised €6.69 billion, according to PEI data. The fund delivered a net internal rate of return of 14.4 percent as of September, according to data from limited partner California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

Nearly 25 percent of respondents to a survey by adviser Campbell Lutyens said that more than one-quarter of the GP-led transactions they completed last year included an investment from the sponsor’s latest flagship fund.