Hartford offloads Stirling Square stake

US endowment Hartford Healthcare Corporation has sold its stake in a 2014-vintage pan-European buyout fund to Access Capital Partners.

The endowment, which has $3.8 billion in assets under management, offloaded its interest in Stirling Square Capital Partners III to fund of funds manager Access, according to a UK regulatory filing.

Access used its Access Capital Fund VI Growth Buy-Out Europe, a €644 million 2013-vintage fund of funds vehicle, the filing noted.

Hartford had committed $10 million to Stirling Square III, according to PEI data. It was not clear if the stake was sold individually or as part of a portfolio. The deal closed on 26 July and pricing details were undisclosed.

Stirling Square III raised €600 million – above its €500 million target – by final close in 2015, according to PEI data. The fund holds nine assets including Italian high-tech glass manufacturer Isoclima, Norwegian construction analytics firm Docunordic and French thermostatic components manufacturer Vernet, according to Stirling Square’s website. All of these investments were made in 2017.

Stirling Square Capital Partners is in market with its fourth fund and had raised €600 million as of May, according to sister publication Private Equity International. The London-headquartered firm was aiming to hold the final close on the vehicle, which has a target between €800 million and €1 billion, at the end of the third quarter.

It is understood that founding partners Jakob Foerschner and Bolaji Odunsi have retired, with filings on the UK’s Companies House showing that the pair left the firm earlier this year. Of the original six co-founders, only Gregorio Napoleone and Stefano Bonfiglio remain.

Hartford Healthcare has a 12 percent target allocation to private equity, according to PEI data.

Endowments and charities accounted for 3 percent of sales by volume in the secondaries market during the first half of 2018, according to Setter Capital’s H1 volume report.

Hartford and Access Capital did not return requests for comment, while Stirling Square declined to comment.