Deutsche to seek $2bn for fourth secondaries fund

Deutsche Bank‘s private equity unit wants to raise as much as $2 billion for its latest secondaries fund, Secondaries Investor has learned.

DB Private Equity is in preliminary talks with investors and aims to launch DB Secondary Opportunity Fund IV as early as the first quarter of next year, according to a source familiar with the fundraising.

Private Equity News first reported Deutsche was planning to raise the fund.

The unit is investing its 2014-vintage Secondary Opportunity Fund III, which closed above its $1 billion target on $1.7 billion in October 2014 after eight months of fundraising, according to PEI data. Investors in SOF III include Kentucky Retirement Systems, Public School Retirement System of the City of St. Louis and Austin Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement System, according to PEI data.

In the second half of last year, DB Private Equity used SOF III to invest in at least two restructurings: Swiss private equity firm Zurmont Madison‘s sole fund in a deal involving SFr74 million ($74 million; €69 million) in net asset value, and a transaction involving around $200 million of NAV in healthcare-focused Enhanced Equity Funds‘ two vehicles, which was set to close at the end of February, as Secondaries Investor reported.

DB Private Equity declined to comment.