MENA-focused Lagoon Capital halts fundraising

Lagoon Capital Partners, which partnered with HarbourVest nearly two years ago to make secondaries investments in the Middle East and North Africa region, has switched focus and is no longer raising a secondaries fund.

“Unfortunately at this time, Lagoon will be shifting priorities,” Radhika Talwar, manager for compliance and human resources at the secondary private equity firm, told Secondaries Investor in an email. The firm’s website states that Lagoon is also an advisory firm focused on providing regional investors with liquidity solutions for their private equity investment portfolios. She confirmed that the firm is no longer raising a secondaries fund, but she declined to elaborate on the reason behind the change.

Lagoon Capital, which is based in Dubai, was founded by Anuj Khanna, who previously worked as head of investment management at QInvest. The firm was set up with the backing of the Qatar Insurance Company (QIC). Khanna is still listed as the chief executive on the firm’s website. Talwar is also listed as working there along with two other employees.

The firm’s website states that Lagoon is also an advisory firm focused on providing regional investors with liquidity solutions for their private equity investment portfolios.

The firm was planning to raise about $150 million for its debut fund, Lagoon Capital Secondaries Fund I, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division. According to a filing with the Cayman Gazette made by QIC, Lagoon Capital Secondaries Fund LP is in voluntary liquidation. The winding up of the partnership began on 9 July.

In November 2013, HarbourVest entered in a partnership with Lagoon Capital to build up its secondaries activity in the MENA region.

At the time, the two firms said they would jointly source, evaluate and invest in private equity assets held by investors in the area, including direct secondaries as well as purchasing existing limited partners’ fund stakes.

HarbourVest was not available to comment.