The Carlyle Group has closed the inaugural Carlyle Global Partners fund on $3.6 billion, this coming about two years after the firm began raising what it’s calling a “long-dated” vehicle designed to maintain investments for longer than the typical private equity holding period. The fund could invest more than $500 million in equity per transaction and will pursue deals across all sectors and geographies.
Carlyle Group
The new vehicle is part of a larger trend in the industry, as other firms such as Blackstone and Altas Partners are also raising pools of capital with longer horizons to take advantage of what they see as an inefficiency in the current market: the fact that, in order to generate returns for their LPs in a timely manner, the vast majority of PE firms hesitate to hold onto investments for more than a decade.
Carlyle veteran Eliot Merrill and newcomer Tyler Zachem will co-head the fund, leading a team of 13 based out of New York and London. Zachem joined the firm last year from Broad Sky Partners, where he was CEO and a founding partner. Carlyle has already deployed more than $1 billion from the vehicle, securing deals with companies such as Global Jet Capital, a provider of financing for the corporate and private aircraft market, and NEP Group, a provider of outsourced production services.
Blackstone is in the process of raising $5 billion for a fund that could have a horizon of up to 20 years, according to a Bloomberg report from earlier this year. Altas Partners closed a $1 billion fund in May that can maintain investments for up to 17 years, and CVC Capital Partners closed a $4.4 billion strategic opportunities fund earlier this year that will reportedly have a 15-year lifespan.
[drizzle]Article by Kevin Dowd, PitchBook
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