Blackstone, Bain, Advent top ‘most desirable’ list

Advent, Apollo and Carlyle round out the top of Setter Capital's most sought-after managers list.

Blackstone, Bain Capital and Advent International occupy the top three spots on a list of the 35 most sought-after general partners in the US large buyout market, compiled by Setter Capital.

According to the intermediary’s The 35 Most Sought-After Managers on the Secondary Market, Blackstone Capital Partners funds were the most desired as of 15 September.

The report was published on 21 September.

Ninety-nine secondaries buyers expressed interest in Blackstone’s flagship buyout funds, either by flagging a desire to buy or by pricing a given fund, according to the report.

There are 11 funds in the family, the most recent being the $17.5 billion, 2015-vintage Blackstone Capital Partners VII.

According to performance data compiled by the New Jersey Division of Investments, Fund VII has achieved a total value multiple of 1.02 as of the end of 2016; the 2012-vintage, $16 billion Fund VI a multiple of 1.47; and the $21.7 billion, 2005-vintage Fund V a multiple of 1.67.

In second place was Bain Capital’s family of 19 flagship large buyout funds, which edged up from third place when the survey was last compiled in 2015.

Bain’s funds had interest from 97 prime buyers when the list was complied.

The most recent is Bain Capital Fund XII, a 2017-vintage fund that raised $9.4 billion, above its $7 billion target, according to PEI data.

According to a presentation prepared by Portfolio Advisors for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, 2014-vintage predecessor Bain XI had achieved a net multiple of 1.44 as of the end of 2016.

Rounding off the top three was Advent International’s Global Private Equity funds, which had 94 expressions of interest, helping the firm move up from fifth place in last year’s table.

Advent’s past three flagship funds-VIII, VII and VI-have achieved respective multiples of 0.77, 1.40 and 0.77 as of the end of December 2016, according to data from the Minnesota State Board of Investment.

The rankings are largely based around Setter’s Liquidity Ratings, by which the firm rates managers ‘excellent’, ‘very good’, ‘good’ or ‘unrated’, depending on the amount of interest shown by secondaries buyers. Around 1,300 buyers are tracked directly and through trading platform SecondaryLink.

The top 15 are:

Ranking Previous ranking (compiled on 31 August, 2016) Fund family Interested buyers
1 1 Blackstone Capital Partners 99
2 3 Bain Capital 97
3 5 Advent International Global Private Equity 94
4 2 Apollo Investment Fund 86
5 7 Carlyle Partners 82
6 6 Hellman & Friedman 82
7 8 New Mountain Capital 79
8 4 TPG 75
9 13 Silver Lake Partners 75
10 12 Warburg Pincus Private Equity 74
11 9 Sun Capital 74
12 10 KKR North American Funds 73
13 11 Thomas H Lee Partners 72
14 15 CD&R 71
15 14 TA Associates 67

Source: Setter Capital