The UK’s ACCESS Pool, which has total assets worth £35bn (€40.5bn), has launched a search for two private equtiy allocators.

The appointed firms will oversee a multi-vintage programme where authorities will have the ability to commit to vintages on an ongoing basis over the term of the mandate.

Each vintage is expected to be globally diversified, with investments across primary funds, secondary funds and co-investments, according to a statement.

For the first five vintage years of the mandate, ACCESS pool anticipates that the aggregate size of the annual commitments to the two private equity allocators will be on average around £500m or more each year.

Considering the potential ultimate scale of the mandate, the pool anticipates that total assets across all vintages across both allocators could exceed £4-6bn, based on the potential asset growth and/or increases to individual authorities target allocations.

The contracts will be procured through a tender, carried out as a two-stage restricted procedure. Submissions for the tender need to be submitted by 2pm on 24 May 2024.

Private markets programme

This marks the third phase of the ACCESS pool’s private markets programme that has seen it steadily add private markets assets into its investable universe.

As part of the first phase, ACCESS appointed Apex Investment Advisory (formerly MJ Hudson) in January 2022 as implementation adviser for the pooling of illiquid assets, including private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real estate.

In January, the pool confirmed commitments to two infrastructure fund vehicles managed by IFM Investors and JP Morgan as part of its second phase of private markets programme. 

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