BlackRock Private Equity Fund Raises $2.75 Billion in First Push
BlackRock Private Equity Fund Raises $2.75 Billion in First Push
(Bloomberg) -- BlackRock Inc.’s private equity vehicle completed its first fundraising round, lagging behind its original schedule.
The Long-Term Private Capital fund secured $2.75 billion from investors, including $1.25 billion in hand and $1.5 billion committed, BlackRock said in a statement Monday. The world’s largest asset manager contributed its own capital to both pools, according to a spokesman.
BlackRock is seeking a total of $10 billion to $12 billion, suggesting that significant fundraising work lies ahead. When BlackRock first planned the fund, it sought to raise the money by mid-2018.
While money managers from hedge fund to mutual-fund firms have expanded into more illiquid, private investments seeking higher yields, fundraising is increasingly competitive. Pension funds and family offices are also looking for better terms from private equity firms or hiring staff to do deals themselves.
BlackRock’s vehicle will focus on long-term themes such as diverging global demographics, the growing middle class and millennial spending patterns, Bloomberg reported last year. That could include a minority stake in a family-owned business, which the fund would retain long term.
“There’s a large population of strong, stable companies with a reciprocal need for a long-term private ownership model,” Andre Bourbonnais, the new fund’s leader, said in the statement. “For these companies, neither a public listing nor a leveraged buyout is an attractive option.”
BlackRock has sought to expand beyond indexed products, which account for about two-thirds of assets under management, and bolster its alternatives business. In March it agreed to acquire eFront, a software provider focused on private equity and real estate data, which it plans to add to its own Aladdin risk-management platform. Last year, BlackRock purchased Tennenbaum Capital Partners, a private credit manager based in Los Angeles.
BlackRock didn’t identify investors in the Long-Term Private Capital Fund. The Minnesota State Board of Investment approved hiring BlackRock to manage as much as $1 billion, or 20 percent of the Long-Term Private Capital fund, whichever is less, according to public meeting minutes in September.
To contact the reporters on this story: Annie Massa in New York at amassa12@bloomberg.net;Sabrina Willmer in New York at swillmer2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum
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