Ohio School Employees commits $50m to Coller

The Ohio School Employees Retirement System has committed up to $50 million to Coller Capital, which is targeting $5 billion for its sixth fund, according to market sources.

The $9.8 billion pension has an existing relationship with the secondaries specialist, having invested $40 million in the firm’s fifth fund in 2006. Coller International Partners V closed on $4.8 billion in 2007.

Coller’s current fund has been behind some of the highest profile secondaries deals in Europe during the financial crisis. In 2010, the firm backed the spin-out of a portfolio of direct private equity investments from UK banking group Lloyds TSB in a £332 million (€384 million; $525 million) deal. The portfolio comprised around 40 investments made by the former Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance team, which was later subsumed by Lloyds TSB as part of a bank merger.

Fund V also has significant exposure to venture assets, having agreed deals including the joint acquisition of 30 portfolio investments from 3i’s venture arm alongside HabourVest Partners in 2009 and the £50 million de-listing of the Prelude Trust in 2008.

At the height of the financial crisis in February 2009, Coller built up a significant stake in the listed private equity investor SVG Capital, which had been trading at a steep discount to net asset value. SVG primarily invests in Permira’s funds from its own balance sheet and by investing £50 million in an SVG rights issue, Coller effectively acquired access to Permira’s funds at a discount.

Coller is not the only major secondaries investor to be marketing a new vehicle. Paris-headquartered AXA Private Equity is currently trying to raise between $3.5 billion and $4 billion for its fifth secondaries fund of funds. New York-headquartered Lexington Partners, meanwhile, began marketing its seventh secondaries fund in December 2008 with a target of up to $5 billion
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