LGT Capital closes third European mid-market fund

Swiss-based asset manager and part of the Princes of Liechtenstein’s family office LGT Capital Partners has closed its Crown Europe Middle Market III (CEMM III) fund of funds on its €500 million hard-cap.

The vehicle is already almost half deployed, having invested €237 million in nine private equity funds, seven secondaries transactions and five co-investments, the firm said, without identifying them.

CEMM III, which is focused on mid-market buyout funds, drew commitments from 34 investors, including government and corporate pension funds and insurance companies in Australia, Belgium, Japan, Korea, the Middle East, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, the firm said.

The predecessor fund, CEMM II, a 2008-vintage vehicle, raised €429 million according to PEI’s Research & Analytics. Investors in that fund include the UK’s London Borough of Hillington Pension Fund, and Australia’s Construction and Buildings Unions Superannuation Fund, CARE Super and HOSTPLUS.

The firm is also marketing Crown Asia-Pacific Private Equity III, for which it had raised $283 million in October, and had launched Crown Global Secondaries IV with a target size of $2.5 billion by the middle of 2015.

LGT Capital Partners has more than $50 billion in assets under management and more than 400 institutional clients spread over 35 countries. It focuses on private markets, illiquid alternatives, fixed income and “multi-alternatives solutions”.

The firm allocates 47 percent of its assets to private equity and ranked 25th in PEI’s LP 50 published in July last year.