News | Financial Services

SJ Berwin Advises on Baring-Coller Secondaries Fund

Tuesday 23rd July 2002

SJ Berwin advised Baring Asset Management Limited on the structuring and creation of the Baring-Coller Secondaries Fund. The Fund acts as a feeder fund into Coller Capital's fourth investment fund which focuses on private equity secondaries.

Barings aims to raise approximately $20 million for the Fund and has identified smaller institutions, charities, and private clients, in the UK and overseas as likely investors.

This is Baring's first fund targeting private equity secondaries. The Fund is structured to lower the minimum investment and also to simplify the investment process and administration by having two draw downs of 50% each, the second of which may, depending on investment performance be covered by profits from early realisations in the underlying fund.

Secondary private equity managers buy private equity portfolios pre-maturity from banks, pension funds and other institutional investors. This provides liquidity to those investors who may want to redeem their investment before the usual 8-10 year life of the fund. This also provides for a shorter realisation lead time and also usually allows valuation of portfolios with greater certainty.

The SJ Berwin team was led by financial services partner Tamasin Little and taxation partner Michael Trask.

Tamasin Little commented that: "Investors are increasingly interested in diversifying their assets. The Baring-Coller fund is an interesting structure enabling a wider range of access to the type of private equity fund which is normally only available to major institutions."

Notes:

• SJ Berwin is a full-service international legal practice with more than 470 lawyers across its offices in London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Paris.
• With a dedicated European private equity team comprising over 150 full-time corporate private equity lawyers together with support from its other departments, SJ Berwin advises clients on the full-range of private equity business, both in connection with the establishment of private equity funds and their associated incentive schemes, and on MBOs, MBIs, public-to-privates and venture capital investments.
• SJ Berwin recently won "Private Equity Law Firm of the Year: Firm and funds work" at the European Venture Capital Journal Awards and "Best Law Firm (fund documentation)" at the PrivateEquityOnline Awards, and was runner up in the category of "Best Law Firm (transactions)". It has also recently been nominated for "Private International Law Firm of the Year" by Chambers Global.
• SJ Berwin has also recently won the European Venture Capital Journal Award for Private Equity Law Firm of the Year 2000, Law Firm of the Year and Property Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2000, and Competition Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2000.
  

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