How is it even possible to raise a second fund without having completed a first?
I am an attorney but I served as counsel for several financial firms, including PE. I need something cleared up for me.
I have a friend that worked for several MM private equity funds for 15 years out of college before setting up his own fund in 2018. He closed 2 transactions last year, but the length of the fund is ten years. Yet he is already in the process of raising another fund.
This guy has used all the tricks in the book to make the current status of fund I look easy better. We all know that a.) not calling significant capital early and b.) transactions early in the life of the fund heavily distorts IRR. He also has used, in my opinion, VERY generous valuations for the current holdings in his portfolio.
Yet he pitches this supposedly fantastic IRR and other bloated stats for his current fund to institutions and they have already thrown $ at him for Fund II. I suspect he will have enough capital commitment to launch the second fund by the end of the year.
And so my question is: how is it even possible to raise a second fund before having completed the entirety of your first fund? This guy isn't even halfway through his first fund and hasn't called even close to all this capital. I just cannot believe that pensions, endowments, other institutional etc would throw money at him for Fund II already.
But he is indeed a very charismatic salesman. And those sweet management fees are always there regardless. Is it really that easy?
The LPA specifies when a successor fund can be raised. Usually the requirement is for 70-75% of the current fund is invested or reserved.
Not sure what the specific situation is for the fund you are talking about. But Institutional investors would have considered this.
Also just because a second fund is raised it doesn't necessarily mean fees start to flow from that as there may be an activation clause (eg when first deal is done in second fund)
It's fairly common for firms like this to unravel when they start getting realizations in the first fund and they are way off their valuation marks. Fund II it's not necessarily expected to have any material exits yet, fund III they're going to want seeing some real numbers.
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