Nicole Idar Lee

In an effort to trump a £748m preliminary agreement SVG reached with rival suitors Goldman Sachs and CPPIB, HarbourVest has also offered to buy the London-listed private equity investor's entire portfolio, but for at least £783.1m.

HarbourVest is giving shareholders more time to consider its offer after SVG said it planned to sell its entire portfolio to Goldman Sachs and CPPIB for around £748 million.

News the pair is offering to buy all of SVG comes barely a day after the London-listed private equity investor reached an agreement ‘in principle’ to sell half its portfolio to two other buyers.

Shares in the London-listed private equity investor, led by CEO Lynn Fordham, fell by over 3% to 652 pence at mid-morning, with just one day to go before HarbourVest’s 650p-a-share final offer expires.

The two firms have agreed to acquire 50 percent of SVG’s portfolio with just over a day and a half to go before shareholders must decide whether to accept a rival offer from HarbourVest.

The US-based private markets investment firm noted that SVG has missed its own deadline to update the market on talks with potential rival bidders.

A shareholder in the company since July 2014, the Hong Kong-based private equity firm bought TA Associates’s majority stake as it looks to expand the brand in Asia and across the globe.

The London-listed private equity investor, the target of a £1bn unsolicited bid from HarbourVest, said it is in ‘detailed’ talks with the Goldman group just four days before HarbourVest’s first close deadline.

In its defence document published Thursday, the London-listed private equity investor repeated its recommendation that shareholders reject HarbourVest’s 650p-a-share offer.

PEI weighs up the possibilities, using sister title Secondaries Investor’s SI 30, a ranking of the world’s top secondaries firms by capital raised in the past five years, as a starting point.