Lexington Partners

Lexington Partners

Type	Private Ownership
Industry	Private Equity
Founded	1994
Headquarters	New York, NY, United States
Products	Secondary Investments, Equity co-investments, Fund Investments
Total assets	$22 billion
Employees	80+
Website	www.lexingtonpartners.com

Lexington Partners, is a leading independent manager of secondary private equity and co-Investment funds, founded in 1994. Lexington Partners manages approximately $22 billion of which $7.1 billion was committed to the firm's seventh fund (Lexington Capital Partners VII, closed in 2011).^[1]

Lexington was founded by former investment professionals Brent Nicklas and Richard Lichter, who had previously worked together at Landmark Partners. Lichter subsequently left Lexington to head the secondaries group at another fund of funds before founding Newbury Partners in 2006.^[2]

Lexington is headquartered in New York with offices in Boston, Menlo Park, London and Hong Kong.

Investment program

Lexington invests primarily as a fund of funds, purchasing interests in various investment funds, typically structured as limited partnerships. Lexington Partners 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.

Lexington is reported to be raising a new $8.0 billion secondary fund (Lexington Capital Partners VIII), which would be the largest active fund in the secondary market.^[3]

Lexington is a dedicated secondaries investor and like many of its peers has limited ability to make new commitments to private equity funds. While in certain instances this impacts the firm's desirability to general partners as a replacement limited partner, Lexington does make strategic commitments to newly formed private equity funds. The firm also manages equity co-investment vehicles that invest alongside global private equity sponsors. Lexington’s secondary funds have committed to over 240 newly formed private equity funds while Lexington’s co-investment funds have committed to invest over $2.6 billion in 139 co-investments in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Lexington’s limited partners include public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, financial institutions, endowments, foundations, and family offices.

History and notable transactions

Since 1994, Lexington has stated that it has completed over 340 secondary market transactions. Although most secondary transactions are private, the following are notable publicly disclosed transactions and firm milestones:

• 2008 — CalPERS agrees to the sale of a portfolio of legacy private equity funds, having started marketing it in late 2007.^[4] A buyer group comprising Oak Hill Investment Management, Conversus Capital, Lexington Partners, HarbourVest, and Pantheon Ventures paid as much as $3 billion for the portfolio.^[5] (CalPERS is an existing investor in funds managed by Lexington.^[6])

• 2007 – Lexington Partners lead a secondary spin-out transaction from a hedge fund, a $200 million transaction to acquire 70% stake in 19 investments.^{[citation needed]}

• 2006 — American Capital Strategies sells a $1 billion portfolio of investments to a consortium of secondary buyers including Lexington Partners, HarbourVest Partners and Partners Group.^[7][8]

• 2005 — Lexington Partners and AlpInvest Partners acquired a portfolio of private equity fund interests from Dayton Power & Light, an Ohio-based electric utility.^[9][10][11]

• 2004 – Lexington Partners formed a dedicated secondary fund to acquire private equity interests that were less than 50% funded.

• 2003 — Lexington closes on $2 billion for its fifth fund after two years of marketing, ultimately falling short of its $2.5 billion target.^[12][13]

• 2000 — Lexington Partners and Hamilton Lane acquire $500 million portfolio of private equity funds interests from Chase Capital Partners.

• 2000 — Coller Capital and Lexington Partners complete the purchase of over 250 direct equity investments valued at nearly $1 billion from NatWest.^[14]

• 1998 – Lexington Partners established CIP I, one of the first independent, discretionary co-investment programs with a leading U.S.-based institutional investor.

• 1994 – Lexington Partners purchased a portfolio of mezzanine fund interests from a bank, one of the first transactions of its type.

• 1994 — Lexington Partners founded by former Landmark Partners professionals Brent Nicklas and Richard Lichter (currently Newbury Partners).

Competitors

Lexington regularly competes against dedicated secondary investors such as Coller Capital and Landmark Partners as well as secondary players that also have active fund of funds platforms (e.g., AlpInvest Partners, Ardian (formerly AXA Private Equity), HarbourVest Partners) and certain large financial institutions (e.g., Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Neuberger Berman).

References

External links

• Lexington Partners Official website

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