Spice sells $31m portfolio

Spice Private Equity, a listed fund of funds, has sold a portfolio of stakes and two co-investments for $31 million.

The vehicle sold its stakes in Navis Asia VII, Northstar IV, Baring Asia VI, Carlyle Sub- Saharan Africa Fund and Helios III, and co-investments in Carlyle-backed Brazilian hospital group Rede D’Or and Indian real estate investment firm Altico Capital, according to a statement.

The investments were the last primary investments held by Spice. The firm retains positions in six 2007-2008 vintage funds which it bought on the secondaries market.

In May last year Spice was bought by Brazilian private equity firm GP Investments, which said it wanted to turn the fund of funds into a dedicated co-investment vehicle focused on large direct investments.

Navis Asia VII is a $1.5 billion southeast Asia-focused vehicle which the Kuala Lumpur-based firm raised in 2015. In December, the firm told sister publication Private Equity International the fund would be fully invested in 2017.

Baring Asia VI is the Hong Kong-headquartered firm’s sixth pan-Asia fund, a 2015 vintage $4 billion vehicle, while Northstar IV is an Indonesia-focused $800 million fund which closed in 2015, short of its $1 billion hard-cap. The Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund targets investments in consumer, logistics, financial services and telecommunications. It launched in 2011 and closed in 2014 on $700 million fund. Its first exit was in July when it sold its minority stake in Export Trading Group, a Tanzanian-based continental supply chain manager, back to management.

Spice said the stakes were sold at a 6 percent premium and leave it with only mature funds and direct investments, “with minimal expected capital calls to be made out of remaining outstanding commitments”.

The firm has six stakes acquired on the secondaries market, according to its website. These include positions two funds run by its parent: GP Capital Partners IV, a 2007 $1.27 billion fund and GP Capital Partners V, a 2008 $1.05 billion vehicle.

In November 2015 Spice received $37.4 million from Strategic Partners, the secondaries unit at Blackstone, as a deferred payment for a portfolio acquisition made the previous year.