LGT Capital Partners closes fund of funds on €800m

LGT Capital Partners has closed its second European small buyout fund of funds, Crown European Buyout Opportunities II, on €800 million ($1.1 billion).

The fund has already made more than €240 million in commitments to ten private equity funds. It attracted global institutional investors including pension funds, insurance companies and foundations.

Tycho Sneyers, a partner at the asset manager, said the fund is targeting buyout funds with less than €500 million in commitments across Europe. The fund is double the size of the firm’s first small buyout fund of funds, which closed in June 2004 with €392 million of commitments. This fund has posted an IRR of more than 30 percent, Sneyers said.

He added: “We cut back investors in the last two closings of the second fund and we had to indicate to certain parties it did not make sense to start due diligence.” The fund would have been able to raise more than €1 billion had it catered for all the demand, according to Sneyers.

LGT Capital Partners manages more than €15 billion globally in hedge fund and private equity investments.