Goldman closes Vintage VIII on $10.3bn

The firm has held the final close on its latest secondaries vehicle, which is already 20% committed to deals involving GPs such as Thomas H Lee Partners and Clearlake Capital Group.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has held the final close on the fifth-largest secondaries fund ever raised.

The firm has collected $10.3 billion for Vintage VIII, 20 percent of which has already been deployed, a spokesman confirmed to Secondaries Investor.

The fund put $900 million to work in the second quarter in covid-resilient sectors such as technology, infrastructure and healthcare, a 40 percent increase on the same period of last year. Up to 10 percent of Vintage VIII can be invested in real estate.

Bloomberg first reported on the fund’s close.

Secondaries Investor reported in November 2018 that Goldman was returning to market targeting as much as $7 billion. The fund had raised more than $8 billion by February this year.

Only Ardian, Lexington Partners and Strategic Partners have raised larger dedicated secondaries funds.

Vintage VIII has higher carried interest than its 2016-vintage predecessor, Secondaries Investor reported in February last year. It charges 12.5 percent carry, compared with the 10 percent charged on its predecessor.

Vintage VII raised $7.12 billion by final close in 2017, according to PEI data. It delivered a net internal rate of return of 8.48 percent and net multiple of 1.15x as of 30 September, according to data from limited partner Minnesota State Board of Investment.

Goldman has backed a number of large GP-led secondaries deals in the second half of this year. It joined ICG and Landmark Partners on a deal to move software company Ivanti out of older funds managed by Clearlake Capital, sister publication Buyouts reported in September.

In October, Secondaries Investor reported that the New York-headquartered firm was co-lead alongside Neuberger Berman and Coller Capital on a single-asset process centred around wealth advisor Hightower Advisors, a Thomas H Lee Partners portfolio company.

Secondaries funds that held final closes during the first three quarters of the year raised $59.7 billion, exceeding all full-year tallies on record, according to Secondaries Investor data.