Northleaf ups exposure to UK

Northleaf Capital Partners has picked up several stakes in a UK small- and mid-market buyout fund, having already increased its exposure to Europe through a secondaries deal last year.

The Toronto-headquartered firm has acquired stakes in Palatine Private Equity Fund II from Access Capital Partners through four individual transactions, according to UK public filings.

Three stakes were sold by vehicles linked to Access Capital Fund V Growth Buy-out Europe, the Parisian firm’s €500 million, 2011-vintage fund of funds. The provenance of the fourth vehicle, Neuflize Vie PC A1, is not clear.

Palatine’s Fund II hit final close in July 2013 on its target of £150 million ($201 million; €171 million), after around a year and a half in market, according to PEI data. Investors include Greater Manchester Pension Fund and Merseyside Pension Fund.

Based in Manchester, Palatine Private Equity focuses mainly on management buyouts in the UK small- and mid-market, making investments of between £2 million and £30 million, according to its website. Remaining assets in Fund II include holiday price comparison website Icelolly and social housing maintenance and refurbishment company Forrest.

Northleaf Capital announced in August 2017 that it would begin raising Northleaf Secondary Partners II. It is not known if the Palatine deal was carried out using this fund or its 2013-vintage, $255 million predecessor.

In July last year Northleaf picked up stakes in Pantheon’s Global Secondary Fund III, Global Secondary Fund IV and Europe Fund V from the pension fund of multinational confectioner Mondelez, Secondaries Investor reported.

Access Capital has also been active on the sell side, offloading a portfolio of 17 fully-invested western European mid-market funds to Finland’s eQ Asset Management in September 2017.