Whitehorse Liquidity Partners, the preferred equity specialist led by former Canada Pension Plan Investment Board secondaries and co-investments head Yann Robard, has held the final close on its debut fund above its initial target.
The Toronto-headquartered firm hit the $400 million hard-cap for Whitehorse Liquidity Partners Fund I, according to a statement obtained exclusively by Secondaries Investor.
The fund, which had a $300 million target, was oversubscribed within two quarters of launching.
“We were gratified by the market response to our fundraise, the interest in our product and the quality of our investor base,” said Robard, who is managing partner at the firm. “We are benefiting from a strong pipeline of transactions, excited about the white space opportunity available in the market and look forward to maintaining momentum towards building a high performance organisation.”
Limited partners that committed to the fund include insurance companies, public and corporate pension plans, family offices, financial institutions and individual investors, according to the statement.
Fund I had collected at least $50 million by May 2016, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund also received a $100 million cornerstone commitment from Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation in the fourth quarter of last year, as Secondaries Investor reported in March.
Whitehorse also promoted Rob Gavin to senior principal, and made three hires including professionals who have experience at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Canada’s third largest public pension plan, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Julian Mirsky joined as an associate from OTPP, Tim Lu joined as an analyst from Paradigm Capital and Marilia Bothamley joins as controller from OTPP. She previously worked for CPPIB.
The firm did not use a placement agent. Proskauer Rose provided legal advice.
Whitehorse targets preferred equity investments in private equity portfolios on the secondaries market, making transactions with institutional investors wanting to exit their fund stakes, funds of funds wanting to create distributions for their limited partners and secondaries buyers interested in financing portfolio purchases.
The firm was launched in the second half of 2015 by Robard, a 15-year veteran of the Canadian pension giant.
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