ICG hits $2.5bn on accelerated fundraise for GP-leds

Intermediate Capital Group has reached halfway on fundraising for its latest GP-led secondaries fund after pushing the launch forward by two years.

The London-headquartered alternatives manager has raised $2.5 billion for ICG Strategic Equity IV out of a target of $5 billion, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The total is driven by existing investors re-investing with larger tickets, Secondaries Investor understands.

Predecessor Strategic Equity Fund III held its final close in January 2020 on $2.4 billion after a year and a half in market, according to Secondaries Investor data. Limited partners include New York City Board of Education Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. 

In November, Secondaries Investor reported that ICG was bringing the launch of Fund IV forward by two years due to faster-than-expected deployment. Fund III was 48 percent invested as of the end of September.

“It’s very clear that the fund is too small for the market opportunity,” said chief executive and chief investment officer Benoît Durteste on a half-yearly earnings call at the time. “That gives us a case to meaningfully upsize the fund.”

ICG’s Strategic Equity funds are the only vehicles of scale to invest solely in GP-led deals, Secondaries Investor understands.

The firm has backed some of the largest GP-led deals to take place in the past 18 months. In December it wrote a €500 million cheque for a single-asset deal centred on nuclear medicine company Curium Pharma, a CapVest portfolio company. It has backed three single-asset processes by Clearlake Capital, including co-leading a $1.25 billion process centred on software business Ivanti.

GP-led processes accounted for half of secondaries deal volumes in 2020, the first time this has happened, according to advisor Evercore.

ICG declined to comment on fundraising.

– Adam Le contributed to this report.