Axa Private Equity annoounced it has it bought a majority stake in a portfolio of private-equity fund investments from Germany’s HSH Nordbank AG.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The deal values HSH Nordbank’s whole portfolio at EUR620 million across 47 funds. The portfolio being bought by Axa comprises investments in 18 European mid-cap and large funds with a total EUR478 million in original commitments.
The deal highlights the ongoing boom in the sale of private-equity interests in the secondary market, as banks continue to sell assets which, under tough new rules, are costly for them to hold.
Axa Private Equity has been particularly active in the market, having made several acquisitions over the last year. These include the purchase of $1.7 billion private-equity assets from Citigroup Inc. (C), $1.9 billion in private-equity funds from Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and most recently a $740 million private-equity portfolio from Barclays PLC (BCS).
The trend is set to continue over the next two years with an estimated $40 billion-$50 billion of bank assets coming to market, said Vincent Gombault, managing director funds of funds, at AXA Private Equity.
“Banks are looking to offload their private-equity portfolios and pricing is more acceptable,” he said.
“And after banks have offloaded their portfolios, pension funds will be the next round of sellers. Their portfolios are not distressed, but very often pension funds have very small teams and it is difficult to expect them to manage around 200 relationships with individual private-equity firms, and some will look to rationalise their portfolios accordingly,” he added.
Paris, August 30, 2011, (Dow Jones)
