Landmark Partners

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Landmark Partners

Type	Private Ownership
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Simsbury, Connecticut
Industry	Private Equity
Products	Private Equity Secondaries
Total assets	$6 billion (since inception)
Employees	50+ (2007)
Website	www.landmarkpartners.com

Landmark Partners, founded in 1989, is a leading investor in the Private equity secondary market (also known as secondaries). It is based in Simsbury, Connecticut, U.S.A.

Former professionals from Landmark Partners have gone on to found some of the largest secondary focused private equity groups in the US, most notably Lexington Partners and to a lesser extent Newbury Partners and Auda International.^[1]

1 Investment Program
2 Legal and Regulatory Issues
3 Competitors
4 References
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Investment Program

Landmark invests primarily as a fund of funds purchasing interests in various investment funds, typically structured as limited partnerships. Landmark acquires positions in venture capital, leveraged buyout and mezzanine capital funds, together with portfolios of companies or stakes in companies from institutions, corporates, government bodies and family offices. Landmark is also one of the only leading secondaries firm that also focuses on the purchase of real estate private equity interests.

Landmark is a dedicated secondaries investor and as such has limited ability to make new commitments to private equity funds. This has affected Landmark's desirability to financial sponsors or other general partners to serve as a replacement limited partner.

Landmark is in the process of finalizing fundraising for a $2 billion fund (Landmark Partners Fund XIV) and a parallel $400 million fund for early secondary transactions. Previously, Landmark was investing out of a $1.2 billion (Landmark Partners Fund XIII), raised in 2005. In recent years, Landmark has focused on purchasing smaller portfolios than larger competitors Lexington Partners and Coller Capital.

In 2007, Landmark participated in the sale of assets by American Capital Strategies to a newly formed $585 million private equity fund.^[2]

In 2004, Landmark acquired a $1 billion portfolio of private equity fund interests from Bank One.^[3]

[edit] Legal and Regulatory Issues

In 2005, a Connecticut man was sentenced to prison in connection with a scheme under which $150 million of state pension money was inappropriately committed to a fund to be managed by Landmark Partners in exchange for payments and favors that violated his fiduciary duties.^[4]

In 2000, Landmark Partners and its then chairman agreed to pay a civil penalty totaling $150,000 to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to settle allegations related to the bribery scandal.^[5]^[6]

[edit] Competitors

Landmark's largest competitors in the private equity secondary market include market leading dedicated secondary firms (Coller Capital and Lexington Partners), large fund of funds (HarbourVest Partners, AlpInvest Partners), certain investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers) as well as mid-sized secondary firms (Pomona Capital, Newbury Partners, Paul Capital) focusing on more traditional purchases of private equity fund interests.