SL Capital buys Pantheon stakes

SL Capital Partners has upped its exposure to Pantheon by acquiring a pair of stakes from a UK pension.

The Edinburgh-headquartered secondaries firm has picked up positions in Pantheon Europe Fund VI and Pantheon Global Secondary Fund III from vehicles linked to the Local Pensions Partnership, according to two UK public filings.

These stakes are part of a portfolio worth around $150 million that LPP put on the market in the first half of 2018, Secondaries Investor understands. It is not clear if SL Capital is the only buyer.

Thirty-seven percent of the purchase went to SL Capital SOF II and 63 percent to SOF III, the firm’s respective 2014- and 2016-vintage dedicated secondaries funds, the filings show.

Pantheon Europe Fund VI is a 2007-vintage €1.07 billion private equity fund of funds. It had made a 7.9 percent net since-inception internal rate of return as of February 2016, according to a performance update from the London Pensions Fund Authority.

Pantheon Global Secondary Fund III is a $2.02 billion 2006-vintage secondaries fund. It had made a 1.99 percent net IRR as of March 2018, according to documents from the London Borough of Islington Pension Fund.

SL Capital has acquired Pantheon holdings before. In August 2014, it used its maiden secondaries fund to buy a stake in Pantheon Europe Fund V, a 2006-vintage $724 million fund of funds, Secondaries Investor reported.

LPP was formed in April 2016 through the merger of Lancashire County Council and the London Pensions Fund Authority – the first in a series of amalgamations that would bring the number of UK public pension funds from 89 down to eight.

The fund has £12.5 billion ($14.5 billion; €12.5 billion) under management, according to PEI data.

SL Capital and LPP declined to comment on the deal. Pantheon did not return a request for comment.