Northleaf raises $206m for secondaries

Toronto-based Northleaf Capital Partners raised $206m for its first dedicated secondaries fund, Northleaf Secondary Partners.

Toronto-based Northleaf Capital Partners raised $206 million for its first dedicated secondaries fund, Northleaf Secondary Partners.

Northleaf launched the fund earlier this year with a $200 million target and expects to hold a final close in December. The fund will focus on smaller transactions in a variety of geographies, fund sizes, strategies and sectors, according to a statement, and will target investments of roughly $30 million in size with the flexibility to make larger or smaller investments. Northleaf makes direct co-investments and secondary investments in addition to its fund of funds business and has been investing in secondaries for roughly 10 years.

“The fund will continue to build on Northleaf’s existing private equity secondary program by proactively targeting traditional secondary market purchases of fund interests as well as both structured and direct secondary transactions,” Daniel Dupont, managing director and co-head of Northleaf’s secondaries programme, said in the statement.

Northleaf attracted commitments from a mix of new and existing limited partners for the fund, including public pensions, university endowments and family offices.

Last month, Northleaf hired former Goldman Sachs executive Todd Papau as a vice president of sales and business development to help grow the firm’s relationships with institutional investors and family offices in Canada and globally.

Northleaf spun out of TD Capital Private Equity Investors, the private equity fund of funds and co-investment arm of Canada’s TD Bank Financial Group, in 2009. In addition to its Toronto headquarters, the firm has offices in London and Menlo Park, California.