Pantheon holds final close on its biggest PE secondaries programme

Pantheon has held the final close on its latest secondaries programme, the latest firm to wrap up fundraising since the onset of the global health pandemic.

Pantheon Global Secondary Fund VI and related separately-managed accounts raised $2.2 billion by final close at the end of June, according to a source familiar with the matter. Secondaries Investor reported in June that the fund was set to close.

Investors include Scottish pension Strathclyde Pension Fund, which committed £75.5 million ($96.9 million; €81.6 million), and Ventura County Employees Retirement Association, which committed $25 million, according to Secondaries Investor data.

The fund came to market in spring of 2018 targeting $2 billion.

The close comes amid a record period for secondaries fundraising. Capital raised in final closes in the first half this year beat all previous full-year records, according to Secondaries Investor data.

Pantheon’s close pushes this total to $52.4 billion, a figure 7 percent higher than that raised in all of 2017 – the biggest year for secondaries fundraising so far.

PGSF VI was 41 percent committed by the end of December, according to documents prepared for VCERA. Almost 90 percent of the deals it closed were concentrated around a single fund. Small and mid-sized buyout funds accounted for the largest proportion by strategy at 38 percent.

Deals the fund has closed in 2020 include the restructuring of several growth and venture capital vehicles managed by Idinvest Partners.

The 2015-vintage predecessor PGSF V raised $2.1 billion out of a $2.5 billion target, according to Secondaries Investor data. It had made a 12.6 percent net internal rate of return and 1.34x total value-to-paid-in ratio as of the end of February 2020, according to VCERA.

Pantheon said last week its assets under management reached $50.7 billion as of end-March this year. Since inception the firm has committed $25 billion to private equity primaries, $13.6 billion to PE secondaries and $3.4 billion to co-investments, according to its website. The remainder, $12.8 billion, was committed to investments in infrastructure and real assets.

Pantheon declined to comment on fundraising.