StepStone smashes target on latest secondaries fund

StepStone Group has far outstripped the target of its latest secondaries fund.

The New York-headquartered investment manager has held a $2.1 billion final close on StepStone Secondary Opportunities Fund IV against a target of $1.25 billion, according to a statement. Including separately managed accounts, the firm has raised $2.4 billion for its latest secondaries programme.

“We are fortunate to have a sophisticated, diversified group of global investors… They have shown unyielding support for our secondaries strategy – one that seeks to capture attractive risk-adjusted returns by utilising StepStone’s global platform to construct diversified portfolios of high-quality assets that can outperform without the use of leverage,” said secondaries co-head Mark Maruszewski.

Secondaries Investor revealed in March 2019 that the firm was coming back to market with a successor to the 2015-vintage, $950 million Fund III. That fund had a 16 percent net internal rate of return as of the end of June, according to performance data from Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System.

Investors in Fund IV include Los Angeles Fire & Police Pension System and Cathay Life Insurance, which each committed $40 million, and Fubon Life Insurance, which committed $30 million, according to Secondaries Investor data.

Maruszewski and co-head Thomas Bradley lead an investment team of 25 members globally. In September, the firm hired Glendower Capital’s Philippe Ferneini as head of its European secondaries operations, Secondaries Investor reported.

Not including StepStone, $22.3 billion of dedicated secondaries capital has been raised by funds holding a final close in 2020, according to Secondaries Investor data.