Private equity

Asset manager Oddo BHF has acquired the fund of funds unit in its first foray into private equity.

The interdealer broker’s alternatives team will remain intact despite Alastair Sword’s departure – the latest in a series of exits.

The portfolio included stakes in Montagu Private Equity and IK Investment Partners’ funds, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Around half the investors in the fund, which is nearly double the size of its predecessor, are from charitable organisations.

The UK investment manager raised an £845m secondaries fund in 2013 and incorporates the strategy into its growing SMA business.

The Paris-based manager likes the look of the country’s mid-market and sees hiring and investment opportunities as challenges.

Coller Capital, Park Hill and Campbell Lutyens are among the firms featured on PEI’s list of the 50 best fundraisers in private equity.

The niche secondaries firm has hit the €800m hard-cap on its latest fund, two months after Secondaries Investor revealed it had passed the €650m mark.

Offering liquidity at the end of a fund’s life may become standard, while energy funds are picking up steam.

The world’s largest private equity firm, which said the discrepancy was due to three-quarters of its investment team being male, pays men on average 30% more an hour.