Stafford expands secondaries reach with Robeco acquisition

Stafford Capital Partners has grown its European secondaries footprint with the acquisition of a Dutch private equity business.

The London-headquartered alternatives manager has acquired the private equity investment team of asset manager Robeco, growing its PE assets under management by $1.5 billion to $3.1 billion, according to a statement.

The 11-person Rotterdam-headquartered team manages a series of private equity funds of funds focused on the European small and mid market. Stafford’s private equity offerings have up to now been focused on the US and Australia.

“[Robeco] has a strong focus on sustainable investing and ESG integration as do we, and with the European coverage we now have deep, local expertise across the key geographies for private equity investing,” said Rick Fratus, managing partner of Stafford, in the statement.

The incoming team is set to increase its allocation to secondaries and co-investment in order to take advantage of current market dislocation, the statement notes.

It is set to launch Stafford European Private Equity Fund VI, which is targeting €250 million and can invest up to 50 percent in secondaries and co-investments, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

Robeco has around €173 billion in assets across a range of public and private strategies, according to data from Private Equity International.

In 2014, Stafford acquired Macquarie Group’s infrastructure secondaries, sustainable capital and venture capital funds-of-funds business. The firm has $5.3 billion in primary, secondaries and co-investment assets across private equity, private credit, infrastructure, agriculture and timberland.

– Adam Le contributed to this report.