Goldman Sachs closes $3bn fund

The private equity unit of the Goldman Sachs Asset Management, a division of global investment giant Goldman Sachs, has closed a new private equity fund, GS Vintage Fund IV, at about $3 billion (€2.3 billion).

The fund will make investments between $1 million and $1 billion and will acquire the private equity assets of other groups. The fund’s limited partners include existing and new institutional and individual investors from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, Goldman Sachs said in a statement.

GS Vintage Fund IV has already completed several investments, the statement said, including one with Mellon Financial Corporation earlier this month. In that deal, Goldman Sachs purchased Mellon’s limited partnership interests in 67 private equity funds and made an indirect acquisition of its interests in 34 operating companies. Mellon’s principals launched a new firm, Navigation Capital Partners, which manages the interests of the 34 operating partners. Goldman Sachs made an undisclosed commitment to the new firm, which focuses on growth and buyout investments in middle markets operating companies with sales between $25 million and $125 million.

The GS Vintage Funds focus on the secondary private equity market. The third fund closed at $1.5 billion in December 2004.