Fundraising

The Canadian firm closed its latest fund, Penfund Capital Fund V, on C$724m, above both its C$525m target and its predecessor, Penfund Capital Fund IV, which closed four years ago on C$460m.

The fund, focused on the Spanish mid-market, was raised in less than six months.

Dushy Sivanithy, who spent 10 years at fund of funds Pantheon, joins the placement agent and advisor from UK development finance institution CDC Group.

The close of the West Africa-focused fund comes amid a muted year of fundraising for Africa.

The Paris-based buyout house has reached its target for the fund, and is on-track to hold a final close by year-end.

The UK-focused firm extended the fundraising by six months to take account of investor uncertainty around the UK’s EU referendum.

Global investor demand for European assets turbo-charged the French investment firm’s latest fundraising, enabling it to close its sixth mid-market buyout fund in just four months, says Philippe Poletti, head of the Ardian Mid Cap Buyout team.

The growth equity firm expects to begin deploying capital from FTV V after fully deploying FTV IV, which is 85% invested.

Equita Fund V, which focuses on small and mid-cap companies in German-speaking Europe, has raised almost half its €400m target so far.

The banking group’s Five Arrows Secondary Opportunities unit has also hired three staff this year including a secondaries executive from BEX Capital.