One of the only private equity fund-of-funds managers in the world focusing on off-the-beaten path investment strategies, Mantra has exceeded the target for its inaugural secondaries fund, eight months after launching fundraising.
Press Release
April 28, 2015 – The Mantra Secondary Opportunities fund (MSO) realized a close today that brought total capital commitments to €53 million, €3 million above its overall fundraising target, in a market characterized by strong demand for unconventional private equity strategies. After adding €23 million in today’s close, the Mantra team – headed by industry veteran Antoine Drean – is confident that MSO will hit its hard cap of €75 million. MSO began fundraising in August, 2014.
Building on a model pioneered by the group’s Mantra Alternative Private Equity (MAPE) fund-of-funds, which began investing in 2011, MSO buys stakes in closed private equity funds that pursue niche strategies where there is little competition for deals. Examples of the focus of such funds include intellectual property, life insurance settlements, litigation funding, technology applied to water, agribusiness, timber, mining, royalty strategies and shipping & aircraft leasing. MAPE’s return multiple on niche opportunities – including primary commitments, co-investments and secondary market purchases – is two-times capital invested. The firm has found that buying relatively small stakes on the secondary market, in highly specialized funds, delivers exceptional value, since most transactions are proprietary and do not involve auction processes.
“There is tremendous investor enthusiasm today for teams with proven track records investing in the more imaginative frontiers of private equity,” says Mantra founding partner, Antoine Drean. “With prices for traditional buyouts near record highs, the best values today are often found in private equity’s less conventional strategies.”
MSO has raised capital from a diversified group of family offices, pension funds, insurance companies and international financial institutions, hailing from the Americas, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. On average, returning investors made commitments equal to 250 percent of the capital they invested in MAPE. MSO has not employed a placement agent.
Mantra was founded in 2007 with offices in Luxembourg, Paris and New York.