Lexington closes largest-ever secondaries fund at $7b

Lexington Capital Partners VII LP, said to be more than 80% larger than its predecessor, officially came to market in 2010. It was reported that the fund had exceeded its $5 billion target by January of this year, which led investors to grant a fund-raising extension to the end of June.

Investors are believed to include Houston Firefighters Relief & Retirement Fund, New York State Teachers' Retirement System, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board and Montana Board of Investment.

Last year Lexington bought a private equity portfolio from Lloyds Banking Group valued at $731.7 million and, with StepStone Group, co-led the purchase of $1.1 billion in private equity assets from Citigroup. It was also among the buyers as Bank of America Merrill Lynch sold off $1.2 billion in commitments to funds managed by Warburg Pincus.

Secondary market deal volume reached nearly $21 billion last year, according to Dow Jones, and it is expected to reach record levels in 2011. However, secondary fundraising has struggled so far this year.

Lexington opened its first Asia office, located in Hong Kong, early in 2011. In February it was reported that CIC had committed $1.5 billion to separate accounts attached to secondary funds, divided equally between Lexington, Pantheon Ventures and Goldman Sachs.

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• Topics
• Secondaries
• Lexington Partners
• CIC
• Pantheon
• Goldman Sachs