StepStone Group closes fourth secondary fund, nearly doubling its initial target

StepStone Group has held the final close of its fourth secondary private equity fund, securing a capital pool of $2.1bn.

The firm nearly doubled the initial target for the vehicle, which had been pitched at $1.25bn.

This new fund is a significant jump from its predecessor, which closed on $950m back in 2017.

StepStone Secondary Opportunities Fund IV was backed by existing and new investors from across the globe. The Los Angeles Fire & Police Pension Plan was one of the limited partners to support the vehicle, deploying around $40m.

Combined with separately managed accounts, StepStone has raised more than $2.4bn for its differentiated secondary private equity strategy.

The new fund will focus on the “inefficient segments of the secondaries market”, where the firm believes it can acquire quality assets while driving high returns. It will be co-headed by StepStone partners Mark Maruszewski and Thomas Bradley.

Stepstone partner Thomas Bradley said, “We are pleased to have welcomed to our final close limited partners prior to the recent market disruption. With significant fresh capital to deploy from this new fund, we believe our investors in secondaries will benefit from a greater need for liquidity and a more favourable pricing environment than we have seen in the recent past.”

Limited partners of the new vehicle include sovereign wealth funds, public and corporate pension plans, insurance companies, endowments and foundations, family offices, and financial services and advisory firms.

StepStone is a global private markets investment firm which offers various strategies including fund investments, secondaries and co-investments across the private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real estate asset classes. It has more than $280bn of private markets allocations, which includes $62bn of assets under management.

Last year, the firm led a consortium of investors which purchased $355m worth of assets from Rockbridge Growth Equity’s portfolio.

Source: AltAssets

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