We are a fundraising partner and capital advisor with extensive experience in private fund and direct investment fundraising, secondaries and strategic advisory.
We advise private asset managers on capitalizing or liquidating their assets through a privately negotiated transaction. We also provide comprehensive global advisory and distribution services on capital raising for managers and select private fund sponsors, helping to guide and execute the fundraising process.
Areas of Expertise
Fundraising
- Private Equity
- We utilize a highly tailored approach to primary fundraising with a strong focus on identifying and representing best in class managers in private equity and infrastructure across strategies and geographies.
- Real Estate
- We are is one of the few capital advisors exclusively dedicated to the real estate industry, bringing to bear deep insight and expertise in real estate private capital markets across fundraises, programmatic joint ventures, portfolio recaps, and customized capital solutions.
- Hedge Funds & Liquid Strategies
- We work with our managers to help position their funds in the marketplace with specific messaging on team pedigree, strategy differentiation, and market opportunity. Eaton Partners significantly increases investor outreach, efficiently qualifies investor interest, expedites follow-up and closes on capital such that managers can focus on managing their portfolios throughout the fundraising process.
Private Capital Advisory
- GP Solutions
- Advising financial sponsors on GP-led secondary transactions and innovative liquidity solutions, including single and multi-asset continuation vehicles, strip sales, tender offers, fund-level preferred equity raises, and more.
- LP Solutions
- Actively managing their alternative asset portfolios through the secondary market. We maximize value for clients by leveraging our established buyer relationships, extensive market knowledge, and substantial execution experience.
- Direct Equity
- We leverage an extensive network of institutional investor relationships to raise fee-paying capital for funded and fundless sponsors. Such transactions also include minority and majority equity investments raising primary and/or secondary capital, as well as independent sponsor acquisitions, take privates, and carve-outs, and more.
Approach
We will always seek to meet or exceed client expectations as we:
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Raise capital across the spectrum of alternatives (PE, VC, Growth Equity, Private Debt, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Other Real Assets, and more)
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Selectively choose fund manager partners to match up with investor demand
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Seek non-conflicting products with strategy, sector, and geographic differentiation to provide investors high-quality offerings
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Seek non-conflicting products with strategy, sector, and geographic differentiation to provide investors high-quality offerings
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Estimate demand for every fund/product prior to engaging in a mandate to raise capital
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Conduct due diligence on each fund manager and the fund/product prior to each mandate
Fundraising Process
1. Pre-Engagement
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Initial screening to identify potential investor demand
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Discovery calls to understand fund strategy, sector, geography, track record, and capital raising goals
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Build relationships between senior members of both firms
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Detailed proposal and discussions around placement plan
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Product Committee final review with senior members of both firms to build conviction about investor demand
2. Upon Engagement
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Kickoff call between Greenstone and Fund Manager
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Sales training
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Finalize regional regulatory compliance and fund registrations, as appropriate
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Prepare region-specific marketing materials
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Prioritize investor target list based on deep relationships and substantial intelligence about each investor
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Organize formal investor meetings to identify interested investors
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Prepare and organize a customized multi-country roadshow
3. Investor Book Building
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Conduct two initial roadshows (four to six weeks apart) to cover the region
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Each roadshow will cover a specialized list of investors that are pre-selected and pre-marketed for the placement
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Length of a roadshow is typically four working days (Sunday through Wednesday or Monday through Thursday)
4. Conversion
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Leverage roadshows to schedule follow-up meetings with investors from previous roadshows who have demonstrated interest and activity towards investing
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Assist and facilitate investor due diligence processes
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Continue to engage new highly-targeted investors to build the pipeline
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Facilitate the work required to reach soft commitments
5. Closing
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Facilitate advanced due diligence, assist investors with site visits, coordinate reference calls, and prepare investors for IC
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Assist in the negotiation of subscription terms, as required
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Assist investors with completing the fund managers’ KYC process
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Close commitments
Fund Placement
Fundraising for Private Funds
Primary fundraising is the core of our business. As a full-service placement agent, we advise and raise private equity, infrastructure and real estate funds from institutional investors globally. Our primary fundraising processes are designed with each individual client in mind and are constantly recalibrated throughout the fundraising cycle.
We provide global alternatives fundraising and advisory services for middle-market investment firms. Our platform and services are built on years of investment banking experience, focusing on private equity, real estate and hedge fund strategies. We have cultivated 100+ unique limited partner relationships and cover over 250 limited partners, globally. We pride ourselves on being a full-service, outsourced investor relations team in the middle-market.
Our general partner clients range from talented emerging managers, to brand-name institutions typically looking to raise between $150M and $3B. We strive to achieve the highest quality work for our clients across all aspects of the fundraising process: advising on pre-marketing strategy; fund terms benchmarked against the current market; effective market messaging, including coaching; the drafting of all fundraising and marketing materials (PPMs, DDQs and more). We complement this with roadshow coordination, LP follow-up, and regular fundraise reporting.
Advisory and Execution
- Strategic positioning and pre-marketing insight to develop a marketing strategy tailored to the unique needs of each GP
- Collection and application of up to date investor intelligence
- Preparation of the full suite of industry-leading fundraising materials (primary and investor-specific)
- Due diligence preparation and co-ordination, and market insights
- Seamless execution through a centralized approach and regular communication with the client throughout the process
- Positioning and terms negotiations
Distribution
- Global Network
- We maintain a global network of trusted relationships with 250 institutional investors around the world, including sovereign wealth funds, public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, family offices, foundations, funds of funds, and consultants.
- Deep Relationships
- The depth and breadth of our product offerings allow our distribution team to cultivate long-term relationships and regular dialogue with investors, enabling an in-depth understanding of an investor’s appetite, investment approach and internal processes.
Co-investments and Direct Placements
Fundraising for Direct Investments
We have expertise in raising capital for select companies, assets and portfolios of interests. After identifying a service vacuum in single-asset investment, we built out a dedicated desk in 2019 focused on private equity fundraising for direct investments. We have developed a solid network with global private equity firms, having unique access to direct investments, direct financing and co-investments in private emerging growth companies and real estate assets.
We have a directs and co-investments advisory practice in which we work with general partners, companies, fundless sponsor and others to structure and raise capital for separate accounts, co-investments, joint ventures and direct placements. Our direct and co-investments experience spans across private equity, real estate and real assets.
Secondaries
Secondary Advisory & Transactions
Our secondary advisory practice provides comprehensive solutions to managers and owners of alternative asset portfolios seeking to leverage the secondary market to achieve their objectives.
We advise across a wide range of secondary mandates, assisting investors to achieve best value for their portfolio of assets efficiently and discreetly. Our approach to tailoring transactions according to our client’s objectives, combined with our deep market knowledge and process fundamentals, have enabled us to successfully complete innovative secondary transactions.
GP / Manager-Led Transactions
Whether the manager’s objectives are maximising access to capital, obtaining more time to drive portfolio value, boosting existing fundraising efforts, providing early distributions to Limited Partners, bridging uncertain times, renegotiating terms, a combination of all of these or something else, our secondary team can guide you through the different options in order to reach the optimal solution. We are well-versed across fund restructurings / continuation vehicles, partial (“strip”) or full portfolio sales, single-asset transactions, preferred equity solutions, joint ventures, stapled transactions and GP financings.
LP-Led Secondary Sales
We advise institutions and asset managers on the sale of diversified portfolios across a wide range of vintages and investment strategies. These range from streamlined sale processes to highly complex transactions. They may also include additional advisory elements such as structuring, deferred consideration, vehicle liquidation and advisor-led syndication.
We also advise on the sale of single, large or cornerstone funds interests that need to be divested from a plan, a balance sheet, a third-party investment program or a third-party client feeder fund. These transactions may be run as a straight secondary sale or as a liquidity offering, with or without structuring.
As an alternative to a sale, some investors might consider a refinancing of a portfolio of funds or direct investments. We provide creative solutions to those investors by accessing alternative sources of funding to refinance or recapitalise investment programmes with specialist investors including secondary funds and specialist preferred equity providers.
Manager Spin-Outs & Captive Portfolio Secondary Sales
We advise on the spin-out of both direct investment fund managers and fund of funds managers from their parent organisations. We have completed a wide range of spin-outs from financial institutions, asset managers, listed alternatives firms and family offices. Through our uniquely integrated primary / secondary platform, we are ideally placed to deliver a transaction optimised for multiple goals and for all stakeholders.
Advisory
Strategic Advisory
We are a growth advisor to leading private markets fund managers, providing a unique perspective on key decisions.
With deep understanding of private markets, and daily interactions with industry players of every type, we possess exceptional expertise and a rich data archive, all used to formulate strategic plans suited to clients’ needs in a constantly changing marketplace.
We have been partnering with leading private markets fund managers for years, advising on the full capital raising lifecycle, from pre-marketing through to secondary transactions. Combined with our coverage and relationships with institutional and specialist investors, we are uniquely positioned to advise GPs on how to grow and diversify their platforms.
Capabilities and Engagement Examples
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Mergers and acquisitions within alternative asset manager market
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Minority GP equity investments
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Other GP financing options including debt, preference and structured financing
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Secondary sale of GP minority investments (i.e., succession, legacy sponsor or minority investor)
Offices
London
20 N Audley St
London, W1K 6WE
United Kingdom
Zürich
Bahnhofstrasse 10
Zürich 8001
Switzerland
Prague
V Celnici 10
Prague, 110 00
Czech Republic
