Lexington and Coller receive Miami commitments

Lexington Partners and Coller Capital have received commitments to their latest flagship secondaries funds from City of Miami Firefighters’ and Police Officers’ Retirement Trust.

The pension fund, which has $1.56 billion in assets under management, committed $15 million to each of Lexington Capital Partners IX and Coller International Partners VIII, according to minutes from its November investment committee meeting.

The pension fund has invested in the previous three Coller Capital funds and in the 2014-, 2006- and 1996-vintages of Lexington’s flagship secondaries funds, according to Secondaries Investor data. By number, secondaries funds account for 35 percent of all private equity commitments that Miami has made.

Lexington started raising its ninth flagship secondaries fund in February with a target of $12 billion, Secondaries Investor reported.

Coller International Partners VIII launched in April targeting $9 billion, according to Secondaries Investor data. The fund raised $7.15 billion by final close in 2015 after around 15 months in market.

Fundraising for private equity secondaries funds fell by almost half last year to $22.73 billion with firms including Ardian, Lexington, Coller and Strategic Partners expected to hold final closes on their vehicles as early as this year.

“I think we’ll see a big bump in 2019,” said Sunaina Sinha, managing partner at advisory firm and placement agent Cebile Capital. “We’ll probably see 2020 as another down year for fundraising volumes because all of the small guys combined can’t match the volume of these $10 billion to $12 billion fundraises.”