Advent International (Advent), one of the largest global private equity investors, has completed fundraising for Advent International GPE IX Limited Partnership (GPE IX). The fund reached its hard cap of US$17.5 billion and surpassed the US$16 billion target after six months in the market. Advent’s previous global fund, GPE VIII, closed on US$13 billion in 2016.

GPE IX will pursue the same proven strategy as Advent’s eight prior Global Private Equity (GPE) funds, investing in buyout, corporate carve-out, public-to-private and growth equity transactions, primarily in Europe and North America and selectively in Asia and Latin America.

Sector specialization has been at the heart of Advent’s approach since its inception, and the fund will continue to focus on five core industries where the firm has significant experience and knowledge:  business and financial services; healthcare; industrial; retail, consumer and leisure; and technology, media and telecom. Advent recently announced plans to expand its technology investment team and open a new office in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“The successful fundraising of GPE IX marks a significant milestone for Advent and increases the amount of capital that may be invested in the Asian region," says Filippo de Vecchi, managing director and co-head of Greater China at Advent International in Hong Kong. “As with our previous global funds, GPE IX will be able to invest up to 20 percent of its capital in Asia and other markets outside Europe and North America, in pursuit of our long-established partnership approach with management teams to drive business transformation and strong earnings growth.” 

Andrew Li, managing director and co-head of Greater China, Advent International in Shanghai, says, “Advent has been investing in Greater China, Singapore and selectively in other Asian countries with a particular focus on the chemicals, healthcare, education and retail sectors for the past 25years and has deployed more than US$970 million to help transform and build value in businesses across this fast-growing region.”

“We are pleased with the strong support GPE IX received from both existing and new investors,” says David Mussafer, a managing partner at Advent in Boston. Mussafer is one of 15 managing partners who oversee Advent.