Keyhaven holds first close on small-cap secondaries fund

The London-based secondaries buyer is targeting $585m for Keyhaven Secondaries Fund III, Secondaries Investor reported in November last year.

Keyhaven Capital Partners has secured 28 percent of its latest flagship vehicle.

The London-based lower mid-market manager has raised $163.17 million for Keyhaven Secondaries Fund III, having made a first sale in December 2020, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The fund has a hard-cap of $585 million, which would make it 50 percent larger than Keyhaven’s last flagship fund raised in 2017, according to Secondaries Investor data.

Secondaries Investor reported last November that the firm was coming to market with Fund III targeting $500 milion.

Keyhaven’s last secondaries fund was the 2019-vintage Secondaries (Top Up) II, which raised €100 million, according to Secondaries Investor data. This was raised to give extra firepower to Keyhaven Secondaries Fund II, which raised €250 million from investors including Swedish pension AP Fonden 4.

Keyhaven targets business on a secondary basis in the European lower mid-market. Last autumn it sold a minority stake in insurer Pensions Insurance Corporation for a multiple of 1.7x, Secondaries Investor reported.

In late November, Keyhaven beefed up its investment team with the appointment of Diana Marr as investment director and Vignesh Kumaravel as investment manager. Marr was most recently a managing director with BDO Corporate Finance, while Kumaravel was an associate with Kester Capital.

The firm has invested or advised on more than €2 billion and made more than 60 secondaries investments since it was founded in 2003.

Keyhaven did not wish to comment on fundraising.

Article modified to reflect updated fundraising figures.