Mill Reef closes debut fund on hard-cap

Mill Reef Capital, founded by the former head of secondaries at Schroder Adveq, has held the final close on its first fund.

The Zurich-headquartered firm has hit the €180 million hard-cap for Mill Reef Capital Fund, according to a statement. Investors include include insurance companies, corporate and public pensions, and family offices. Swiss placement agent Convero worked on the fundraise.

“This is a considerable milestone for our company. The launch of our fundraising came at a globally uncertain time and was conducted largely remotely,” said founding partner Nico Taverna, in the statement.

The fund focuses on small, complex secondaries deals in the European market. It has already closed a number of preferred equity deals, as well as single- and multi-asset continuation fund processes, according to the statement.

Secondaries Investor reported in 2019 that Nico Taverna was departing Schroder Adveq to launch his own firm. Mill Reef was formed later that year with Taverna and former LGT Capital Partners executive director Gregor Hasler as partners.

Speaking to Secondaries Investor in March, Taverna noted that there are more than 1,200 general partners in Europe with funds smaller than €300 million in size, and many of them are keen to explore liquidity processes.

“Fundamentally these managers have the same challenges [as large managers] – they might have a great asset which needs some additional time for the full value to be extracted or they have a fund which is reaching the end of its fund life,” he said.