Fundraising

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.

When a general partner says “I raised my fund in three months,” how meaningful is that number?

Riverside Micro-Cap Fund IV closed on $650m, including a 5% GP commitment, and has already made two platform acquisitions so far.

The firm has collected about half its target of €400m for its third fund, Swan III.