Monday 5 March 2018

Unigestion Secondary Opportunity IV has successful final close!

Okay, okay. First things first. I'm back in full samurai mode, after a bit of a slip in my attitude/personality at the end of last week. 'Oh, oh, how do you explain that, boss?!' Well, Voice, samurai get injured, don't they? 'Er, yeah, I suppose.' So ... I was still a samurai, just not operating at the highest level, that's all. 'Okay.' But I've done some reading over the weekend, and watched some videos on YouTube, and I have a much better understanding now of what it actually means to be a samurai. 'Tell us!' Basically, you have to be self-disciplined and fight a psychological battle with yourself from the moment you wake up in the morning. 'Oh.' It's not all going to be plain sailing, you dig? 'No.' I should imagine though that you become stronger day by day, as you live this life of discipline.

Okay, okay. What have we got here, son? 'PR email, boss. Unigestion.' Oh, nice one! / Yes, the successful close of Unigestion Secondary Opportunity IV ...

Unigestion, the boutique asset manager that focuses on guiding its clients with risk managed investment solutions, has completed the final close of Unigestion Secondary Opportunity IV (USO IV) at EUR 306 million. USO IV is the firm's fourth global small and mid-market private equity secondary investment program, and this close is nearly twice the size of its predecessor fund.

Okay. Fair enough

This comes after the successful close of Euro Choice Secondary II in January, which exclusively focuses on Europe. USO IV has already completed 11 secondary transactions across North America, Europe and Asia. The final close of USO IV attracted strong investor support from both new and existing clients, including insurers, pension funds, banks and family offices across the UK, mainland Europe and Asia.

That's all right, ain't it?

Unigestion's strategy for USO IV is to seek secondary opportunities where high quality assets can be acquired at attractive valuations, through the acquisition of Limited Partner (LP) stakes in small and middle market funds, General Partner led situations and secondary directs. The firm invests globally and focuses on the smaller end of the secondary market, with deal sizes ranging from EUR 5 to 30 million.

Okay, okay. I'm just wondering what Christiaan van der Kam makes of all this. 'Who?!' Christiaan van der Kam, man. He's a partner in private equity. 'Oh.' It's a shame we don't have his phone number. 'You could try a mind connection, boss. It's probably too early in the morning for a soul connection. But I would definitely give a mind connection a go.' All right, Voice, reader(s). Silence, please! Let me do this.

A few minutes pass ...

Oh, here we are!

"Price discipline is of paramount importance in today's secondary environment and our differentiated strategy at the smaller end of the market allows us to source deals outside of competitive auctions and invest in companies at more attractive valuations. 2017 was a fruitful year, given the number of high quality transactions that we completed. We are very happy with the portfolio we have built so far and are confident that the fund will deliver attractive and robust performance to investors."

Lovely! Thank you, Christiaan!

-ENDS-

...

Right. Anything else? Yes. I'm now reading that Ashlee Vance book about Elon Musk ... on a loop. I mean, I'm reading it, and then starting again ... a-ROUND, and a-ROUND, and a-ROUND ... forever, man! Just twenty or thirty pages a day. 'Forever, Mikey?!' Well, until I know every word of it, and until Musk's values and attitudes are my values and attitudes. 'Christ!' That combined with my meditating on what it means to be a samurai should do the trick.

Right. Laters.