Edmond de Rothschild spin-out Seligman Private Equity Select has raised about a third of its €75 million target for its sophomore secondaries fund, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange commission.
The total amount raised for European Secondary Opportunities II is about €23.7 million so far. The fund launched earlier this year and has a €125 million hard-cap.
Seligman declined to comment on fundraising.
The firm has four funds under management – two secondaries funds and two fund of funds that make both primary and secondary fund investments.
Its debut secondaries fund – European Secondary Opportunities I – launched in 2010 and raised €50 million, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division.
Fund I invested proportionally between traditional secondaries and secondary direct deals, including the restructuring of Octopus Investments’ Titan VCTs 1-3 fund, according to Octopus’ website.
In July 2013, Seligman completed the restructuring with DB Private Equity and Private Markets, the private equity platform of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management. The pair helped Octopus launch a new venture capital fund that allowed Titan VCT investors to continue to receive distributions from the top-performing investments in Titan VCT’s portfolio. The investments include Zoopla Property Group, Graze, Calastone and Secret Escapes. The new fund was financed by Seligman and DB and managed by Octopus.
Other secondary fund investments are made in small Western European funds with buyout, growth and turnaround strategies. Seligman does not invest in a specific industry but rules out investing in secondary mezzanine, infrastructure, real estate and external commodities sectors such as oil and gas.
The firm considers itself sector agnostic though and invests in small European companies, according to a spokesperson.
“All of our deals are off-market. It’s quite a niche secondary strategy, which is why our fundraising is having such a good reception at the moment,” he said.
Seligman was founded in 2011 when the management team of Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity Select bought the company from its owner La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild Banque, which wanted to reduce its exposure to the asset class. The management buyout was led by Seligman director David Seligman, who led the Edmond de Rothschild private equity arm after spending 25 years at investment bank SG Warburg, which is now known as UBS.
Seligman is based in London and has continued to manage the funds raised under the Edmond de Rothschild ownership.
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