Coller emerges as preferred buyer in Nordic deal – exclusive

The secondaries specialist will participate in a proposed transaction to move assets from Nordic’s 2008-vintage fund to a new vehicle.

Coller Capital has been selected as the preferred buyer in the restructuring of Nordic Capital’s €4.3 billion seventh fund, sister publication Private Equity International has learned.

Nordic began exploring options for a GP-led process in September, working with advisor Campbell Lutyens, Secondaries Investor reported at the time. The proposed transaction was being discussed with the limited partner advisory committee and would involve moving 10 unlisted assets with a net asset value of around €2 billion from the 2008-vintage fund into a multi-year continuation vehicle which could have a five-year term, sources said at the time.

Coller was one of three potential buyers participating in the final round of bids and succeeded with an offer representing a premium to the net asset value “in the high single digits” narrowly ahead of the other bidders, according to one source familiar with the process. It is not known which firms Coller was bidding against.

The firm is currently investing Coller International Partners VII, which closed in December 2015 on $7.15 billion.

Nordic Capital, Campbell Lutyens and Coller Capital declined to comment on the process.

Fund VII holds 14 assets, four of which have been publicly listed, according to Nordic’s website.

The deal’s progress is significant – several high-profile primary managers, such as BC Partners, used the secondaries market in 2017 to run processes on their existing funds.  GP-leds are expected to comprise a significant proportion of this year’s deal volume. Market participants are predicting a record year of at least $42 billion and as much as $50 billion.

– Adam Le and Rod James contributed to this report.