Partners Group buys Keva’s stakes in Italian buyout fund

The global investment firm has bought the Finnish pension fund’s €20m commitment to Synergo's Italian Private Equity Fund IV.

Partners Group, a global investment manager, has picked up stakes worth a total of €20 million in an Italy-focused buyout fund from Finnish pension fund Keva.

Keva sold its stake in Italian Private Equity Fund IV (IPEF IV) to Partners, which used its Partners Group Falcon Access, Partners Group Private Equity (Master Fund) and Partners Group Barrier Reef Access 7 vehicles, according to a UK regulatory filing from 8 February.

The deal closed on 29 January.

The transaction follows the €44 billion pension fund’s portfolio sale to Switzerland-based Partners last year which included stakes in TA Associates, Graphite Capital, Abingworth, Nexit Ventures, Indigo Capital and IK Investment Partners funds, as Secondaries Investor reported.

Partners used the same three vehicles for that sale to purchase the IPEF IV stake, according to the filing. It was not clear if the stake in IPEF IV was part of last year’s portfolio sale.

The 2003-vintage IPEF IV is managed by Milan-based Synergo and holds two assets including chemicals supplier Bozzetto and multimedia content provider Mediacontech, according to the firm’s website. Synergo manages five closed-end funds with a total subscribed amount of over €1 billion.

Investors in IPEF IV include funds of funds, pension funds, banks and insurance companies from different countries, according to an Italian regulatory filing by Mediacontech.

In September, Keva chief executive and managing director Jukka Mannisto resigned. Timo Kietavainen, current deputy managing director of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, is expected to join in May as the pension’s new managing director.

Pension funds were the most active sellers on the secondaries market last year, accounting for 34 percent of sellers by volume, according to a report by Setter Capital.

Keva, Partners and Synergo did not respond to requests for comment.