Golding raises nearly €280m for latest secondaries fund

Golding Capital Partners’ second dedicated secondaries fund is on track to become larger than its inaugural such vehicle.

Golding Secondaries 2022 fund has raised almost €280 million and is expected to grow further to reach its €500 million target, according to a statement shared with Secondaries Investor.

The 2022 fund achieved a first close last August on €172 million, according to Secondaries Investor data.

The predecessor fund, Golding Secondaries 2019, launched in 2020 and closed on €280 million against a €200 million target in 2022, Secondaries Investor data shows. The 2019 fund was the firm’s first dedicated offering for secondaries.

Golding Capital has also promoted its head of secondaries, Richard Wilmes, to partner. Wilmes joined the firm in 2009 and has been building up its secondaries team since 2012, according to the statement.

“With [Wilmes’] promotion we have established the secondaries business at partner level and underlined the relevance of transaction-oriented investments,” Jeremy Golding, the firm’s founder and managing partner, said in the statement.

The firm raised €1.7 billion across various strategies from investors last year.

Secondaries and co-investments represent about 50 percent of the firm’s total investments, Golding added. Thirteen percent of all investments made by the firm last year was in secondaries, up from 5 percent in 2022, according to the statement.

In addition to secondaries, the firm also reached the first close for its fifth infrastructure fund of funds with capital commitments of €360 million, the statement said. It also has a few other vehicles in market, including a buyout fund targeting €400 million and an impact investing vehicle targeting €300 million.

Golding Capital will focus on the further development of secondaries strategies in the small and mid-cap segment, according to Wilmes.

The firm is particularly interested in sectors with recurring, contractually guaranteed revenues such as software, technology and healthcare, Secondaries Investor reported in 2022. The firm’s inaugural secondaries fund primarily focused on private equity investments, while also having the capability to engage in debt and infrastructure transactions with PE-like characteristics across Europe and North America.

Last year, Golding emerged as one of the backers of a more than €235 million single-asset continuation fund run by Maguar Capital, a B2B software investor, Secondaries Investor reported. Other buyers included Glendower Capital, Hayfin and Abrdn. The continuation vehicle was created to house the human capital management software provider HRworks.