Angela Sormani

Boston-based asset management company Affiliated Managers Group has acquired global funds-of-funds manager Pantheon Ventures from pension fund adviser Russell Investments, a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual Life, for approximately $775 million. Additional earn-outs are possible over the next five years. Following the closing, Pantheon Ventures’s management team would hold a significant stake in the business. The […]

Luxembourg-based BIP Investment Partners will no longer make new private equity fund commitments, and instead plans to concentrate on building its direct private equity and public equity portfolio. As of Dec. 31, 2009, BIP Investment Partners had total assets under management of €354.7 million ($481.6 million), including public equities, direct private equity (including both venture […]

Swiss listed private equity fund-of-funds Absolute Private Equity has become the latest European listed vehicle to cease new commitments, and it doesn’t plan to re-start until it sees a significant improvement in its share price in relation to its net asset value. The fund manager said it would not be making any new commitments for […]

Europe’s biggest insurance company, Allianz, may increase its current level of buyout investments by as much as €15 billion ($20.6 billion) from its own balance sheet in the next few years. Private equity investments currently stand at around €7 billion. The boost to Allianz’s private equity portfolio is part of a wider build up of […]

Sweden’s largest pension manager, Första AP-fonden, also known as AP1, is all set to back its first Asian fund in 2010 as part of a major ramp-up of its private equity allocation. The fund, which has an actual allocation to private equity of just over 1 percent, will seek to commit between SEK 2.2 billion […]

Two London-based private equity fund-of-funds managers intend to unite their shops in a new joint venture. Gartmore Private Equity, a division of Gartmore Investment Management, has agreed to merge with Hermes Private Equity. The combined business will have about £3.4 billion ($5.5 billion) of assets under management. The agreement is conditional, with no guarantee that […]

Deutsche Bank AG has agreed to acquire investment banking group Sal. Oppenheim for approximately €1.3 billion ($1.9 billion), a move that adds another funds-of-funds business to the German bank’s private equity portfolio. As of June 30, Sal. Oppenheim Group had approximately €5 billion in assets under management in its funds-of-funds business, out of €135 billion […]

BNY Mellon Asset Management is boosting its private equity exposure with the acquisition of a 20 percent minority interest in international private equity firm Siguler Guff & Company. The deal builds on an alliance between the two firms in which BNY Mellon offers Siguler Guff products to its clients. Siguler Guff has approximately $8 billion […]

Swiss Exchange-listed APEN, which changed its name from AIG Private Equity in June this year, is the latest listed funds-of-funds casualty in Europe to announce a long-term winding down of activities. The business has ceased all new investment commitments, other than funding capital calls from existing funds and follow-on investments in current direct investments. It […]

The £3.2 billion ($5.2 billion) London Pension Fund Authority has put new fund commitments on hold until distributions from its private equity portfolio improve, EVCJ has learned. “We are continuing to increase our [private equity] investment as calls are made against commitments, but distributions are few and far between in the current market and that’s […]