Hermes GPE, a global private equity specialist, has raised $1.6bn (€1.4bn) in private equity, and has closed the latest iteration of its co-investment Club series, PEC IV, with more than $600m raised.

The investment fund was launched just over a year ago with an initial target of $350m and an original hard cap of $450m. With investor support, Hermes GPE was able to substantially exceed these amounts, raising $603.5m from global pension funds, professional investors and asset managers including the BT Pension Scheme (BTPS), State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, the Local Pensions Partnership, CPP Investment Board, Hostplus, Ardian, Korea Teachers Credit Union, SeAH Group of Korea and Decalia Asset Management. Hermes GPE also raised a further $100m for a co-investment sidecar mandate from an existing client at the same time, a statement revealed.

Peter Gale, head of private equity at Hermes GPE, said: “The continued support of BTPS is a significant endorsement of our track record and investment strategy. Raising the latest iteration of our co-investment Club concept well above target, as well as expanding its geographical reach via the addition of new Korean investors, significantly strengthens our co-investment capabilities.”

The Hermes GPE team have started investing a new private equity mandate from BTPS worth $900m, continuing a long-standing investment partnership. And additional $100m has been invested throguh PEC IV. This latest allocation from BTPS totalling $1bn will be invested over three years and split equally between co-investments and funds, the firm stated.

Hermes GPE has a 19-year track record in private equity co-investments, investing more than $3bn in more than 200 global co-investments. PEC IV has already committed around $220m to 24 investments in growth-oriented companies and structural investment themes which the firm believe will demonstrate strong through-the-cycle performance, and continues to have a pipeline of similarly attractive deals.

The firm’s investment strategy is guided by a thematic overlay, with a particular  focus on ‘people, planet, productivity’ isolating structural growth themes that are uncorrelated with the economic cycle, Gale said, adding that “this enables the creation of consistent and sustainable ‘alpha’ independent of market cycles.”

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