The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

KKR
KKR, aka Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has held the final closing of an impact fund, called KKR Global Impact Fund II.

This fund is the successor, as its name suggests, to the first KKR Global Impact Fund – launched in 2018. 

The fund focuses on four investment themes: “Climate action,” â€śsustainable living,” â€ślifelong learning,” and “inclusive growth.”
Since its launch, KKR Global Impact has invested in 18 companies including GreenCollar, CoolIT, Advanta, Lightcast (formerly known as Emsi Burning Glass), and CMC Machinery.

Investors including family offices, public pension programs and insurers put money into the first fund. KKR will invest $250 million of capital into the new entity.

Ardian
The US-based private investment firm, Ardian, has acquired a $2.1 billion portfolio of limited partnership interests in 20 private equity funds from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The portfolio comprises 20 limited partnership interests, a majority of which are North American but also includes European buyout funds.

The deal continues Ardian's secondary funds strategy to provide active portfolio management solutions to large institutions seeking to rebalance their portfolios and monetize their private equity investments, Ardian said in a statement yesterday. 

The field of “secondaries” relates to buying and selling pre-existing stakes in private equity, credit, real estate, and infrastructure. Such markets encourage price discovery, and the promise of more liquidity, making investors feel more comfortable about entering a field in the first place. The secondaries market accounted for $108 billion in volume last year, according to Jeffries, the investment and advisory firm.

Ardian said it has the world’s largest secondaries and primaries platform with more than $89 billion under management or advisement. Over the last four years, Ardian has deployed more than $40 billion in secondary private equity investments.

“This latest acquisition comes at a significant time for the industry where many LPs continue to address the denominator effect and are looking for portfolio management opportunities like this to open up capital for future commitments,” Mark Benedetti, co-head of Ardian US, said. 

Ardian advises on and manages $156 billion of assets on behalf of more than 1,470 clients globally.