Headland Capital Partners suspends fundraising activity

Headland Capital Partners has halted fundraising activity for its seventh private equity fund.

The Hong Kong-based mid-market firm's chief executive, Marcus Thompson, said the move was to allow it to focus on achieving exits for the 14 remaining portfolio companies spread across three of its existing funds.

Private Equity International revealed the launch of HPEF7 last November, reporting that the firm was targeting $1 billion. It was Headland's first fund launch as an independent private equity firm, after it span out of HSBC in 2010.

Thompson said that Headland Private Equity Fund 6 (HPEF6) had “achieved reasonable liquidity and returns on its realised investments”, but that its unrealised portfolio had “not yet delivered satisfactory performance”.

He said: “Accordingly, Headland has decided to suspend the fundraising for HPEF7 and the Headland Group will focus on managing the existing fund portfolios of unrealised investments.”

Thompson said that Headland was continuing to advise on Headland Private Equity Fund 3 Ltd (HPEF3) and HPEF6, while its subsidiary is advising Headland Asian Ventures Fund 3 (HAV3).

The three vehicles contain 14 unrealised portfolios in total which the group expected to realise “over the coming years”.

Thompson said that the firm wanted to thank existing and prospective investors for their interest in supporting HPEF7 and for the ongoing support of HPEF 3, HPEF 6 and HAV3.

He added: “While a large amount of interest was shown by existing and prospective LPs in Headland’s middle market strategy and team, Headland is of the view that suspending the fundraising will enable the firm to commit its resources more fully to building upon the existing funds’ historical track records and returns to LPs.”

Headland’s move echoes that of a number of other GPs in recent months.  In April, PEI reported that London’s Doughty Hanson had suspended fundraising efforts for its Fund VI, while in May it revealed that Australian lower mid-market firm Wolseley was to postpone fundraising for its Wolseley Partners Fund III. 

In July, PEI reported that US private equity firm Castle Harlan had ceased fundraising efforts for its sixth investment vehicle.