Dutch Asset Managers APG and PGGM Sell Equity Arm to Carlyle

(January 26, 2011) — In a move reflecting a shift in Europe’s buyout environment, Dutch pension funds APG and PGGM have agreed to sell 100% of AlpInvest Partners to the Carlyle Group and AlpInvest’s management for an undisclosed sum, but they will remain clients of AlpInvest.

Carlyle and AlpInvest Partners, Europe’s largest private-equity investor with $43 billion of assets under management, have entered into a joint venture that separates the investor from its Dutch pension-fund owners, APG and PGGM, giving both pension-fund managers more flexibility to invest their clients’ money in private-equity funds other than AlpInvest, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal is expected to close in March, pending regulatory approval. The transaction will allow APG and PGGM – the asset managers of the civil service scheme ABP and the healthcare scheme PFZW, respectively – to carry out their multi-client strategies, the groups said in a statement.

“We welcome this new partnership, which fits in with APG’s vision on private equity investments and which will sustain and develop the activities of AlpInvest,” APG CEO DickSluimers said in a release. “In ten years, AlpInvest has grown into a top tier global private equity investor for the pension funds we service and this new partnership ensures a durable collaboration for the years to come.” David Rubenstein, managing director at Carlyle, noted, “Expanding the scope of our global asset management business will create new opportunities for Carlyle investors who seek a proven fund-of-funds platform.”

AlpInvest manages its assets mainly on behalf of APG and PGGM, which control the money of two of Netherlands’ largest pensions. As part of the deal, APG and PGGM are committing an additional $13.68 billion in funds, which will be granted in the period from 2011 through 2015, PGGM’s Chief Executive Martin van Rijn told the WSJ.

Separately in the private equity world, new rules by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have toughened private equity disclosure, as managers with more than $1 billion in assets will now be subject to heightened reporting requirements. “While the group of large private fund advisers is relatively small in number, it represents a large majority of private funds’ assets under management,” SEC Chairwoman Mary L. Schapiro said in a written statement. According to SEC estimates, about 250 US-based private equity fund advisers managing more than $1 billion in private equity fund assets manage 85% of the US private equity fund industry.