Canada’s Cygnus launches secondaries fund

Cygnus Investment Partners, a Toronto-based firm that helps Canadian investors gain access to KKR funds, has branched out with a secondaries fund.

Cygnus Secondary Focus Fund LP is aiming to acquire “top-tier private and growth equity assets”, according to a statement from the firm. It has a term of seven years as opposed to the usual 10. Managing partner Dan Geraci said this was because secondaries by their nature skip the first few years of J-curve and Cygnus will only invest in funds that are 50-100 percent deployed.

Secondary Focus is aimed at Canadian institutional investors, family offices and financial intermediaries, which can invest with as little as $250,000, according to the statement.

Geraci said that the fund does not have a target yet, but one will become clear once the firm has gauged the level of investor interest. The fund will hold a number of closes, with first close targeted for this autumn. It will be denominated in US dollars.

Morningside Capital Management, a Toronto-based tail-end secondaries specialist, advised Cygnus.

Formed in 2015, Cygnus’s main business is giving Canadian investors low-cost access to the private equity, energy, infrastructure and real estate funds of KKR through a locally domiciled vehicle.

Each year it launches a new vehicle that mirrors what KKR has brought to the market, according to the firm’s website. Its minimum buy-in is $250,000 for individuals and $1 million for institutions.