Cebile closes growth-focused fund of funds GP-led

Strategic Partners has backed a GP-led restructuring on two growth-focused funds of funds, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Limited partners in the vehicles managed by Method Advisors were given the option to roll into a continuation vehicle or sell their holdings to a secondaries buyer as part of a process run by Cebile Capital, according to a statement about the close of the deal which did not name the buyer. The continuation vehicle came to $100 million.

“This GP-led process enabled our longstanding limited partners to access liquidity while enabling us the opportunity to continue to manage our portfolios,” said Chris Welch, managing partner of Method, in the statement.

Blackstone’s secondaries unit was the buyer, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.

The two-stage auction process priced “at the high end of where funds of funds tend to transact”, a spokeswoman for Cebile confirmed. All LPs sold except one, she added.

Method Advisors manages Method Advisors 2009 and Method Advisors 2012, which raised $88.65 million and $25.75 million, respectively, according to PEI data. The performance of the funds was described as “top decile” by Cebile managing partner Sunaina Sinha in the statement.

Boston-headquartered Method was founded in 2007 by former Meketa Investment Group executives Welch and Eric Stewart, according to its website. It targets growth-oriented funds and co-investments across private equity, debt and venture capital.

Strategic Partners is investing its eighth flagship secondaries fund, which closed in July 2019 on $11.1 billion.

Fund of funds stakes accounted for 13 percent of transaction volume in the first half of this year compared with 8 percent in full-year 2019, according to data from advisor Greenhill.

Strategic Partners and Method did not return requests for comment. Cebile declined to comment further.