Hollyport picks up tail-end stakes from Pantheon

The tail-end specialist acquired stakes in funds managed by BC Partners, Graphite Capital and Apax Partners, among others.

Niche secondaries firm Hollyport Capital has acquired stakes from three of Pantheon‘s pre-crisis funds.

The tail-end specialist picked up a portfolio of private equity interests from the London-headquartered investment firm’s 2002-vintage fund of funds Europe Fund III, its 2004 successor Fund IV and 2003-vintage Global Secondary Fund II, according to UK regulatory filings dated 9 and 10 July.

Hollyport acquired the stakes with HCP VI Holdings, a vehicle linked to Hollyport Secondary Opportunities VI, which closed in October 2017 on its $500 million hard-cap. Stakes that changed hands include the following buyout funds:

  • The 2005-vintage Apax Europe VI
  • 2006-vintage Vision Capital Partners VI
  • 2006-vintage Argan Capital
  • 2000-vintage BC European Capital VII and its 2005-vintage successor
  • 2003-vintage Graphite Capital Partners VI and the top-up fund of its 2007-vintage successor

Pricing details of the portfolio were unclear.

Hollyport’s strategy is to acquire stakes in funds that are “approaching or have exceeded their original fixed term”, according to its website. It also acquires co-investments and direct investments that have become “non-core” and backs restructurings. The firm looks at private equity, mezzanine debt, real estate and infrastructure.

In June Hollyport backed the restructuring of Fenway Partners’ $1 billion, 1998-vintage buyout fund, Secondaries Investor revealed. Fenway had tried twice before to restructure the fund.

Pantheon is in market seeking at least $2 billion for Global Secondary Fund VI, as Secondaries Investor reported in June.

Funds of funds, which includes secondaries funds, accounted for 19 percent of sellers by number in the first half of 2018, according to research by advisor Greenhill Cogent.

Pantheon, Graphite Capital and Argan Capital did not return requests for comment. Hollyport, BC Partners and Apax did not wish to comment.