Wilshire Private Markets (Wilshire PM) has experienced the strength of demand for Australian private equity from local investors, taking less than two months to raise $200 million for its second domestic fund-of-funds.
The managing director of Wilshire PM, Ovidio Iglesias, said a third and final close at $250 million would occur before the end of the year. “We like our funding periods to be as short as possible, we prefer to be investors not fund raisers,” he said. Iglesias said most previous supporters had returned for the latest fund, as well as two new clients which he said meant Wilshire PM had now been backed by almost all the major asset consultants (InTech is understood to be the exception). Health Super, Telstra Super and Host Plus are the largest investors in Wilshire’s domestic and global fund-of-funds. Ovidio said two commitments together worth $35 million had already been made for the new fund, to a buy-out manager and an expansion capital manager. Iglesias expected manager fees and conditions for the 12 year closed-end fund to be “disciplined”, despite the extent to which demand is outstripping supply of quality private equity managers.
The $34 billion Brighter Super is set to shift a significant proportion of equities assets in MySuper from passive to active management. Chief investment officer Mark Rider says the move is possible because of the scale created by mergers, and the fund will be looking to its newly appointed active managers to generate performance through the cycle by taking idiosyncratic risks.
Darcy SongJanuary 21, 2025
