Three Firms Lead in $4.3 Billion Waterland Fund Closings

Kirkland & Ellis and two European law firms advised Netherlands-founded Waterland Private Equity Investments on the recent closing of its two latest funds for a combined $4.34 billion.

Waterland’s ninth flagship fund, Waterland Private Equity Fund IX, closed at $3.8 billion, while Waterland Partnership Fund I closed at $544 million. Kirkland acted as the global legal, tax, and regulatory counsel to Waterland. Amsterdam-headquartered De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek N.V. acted as Dutch legal and regulatory counsel. Dublin-based Matheson LLP acted as Irish legal, tax, and regulatory counsel, according to a statement.

Both funds were oversubscribed, closing at their hard caps four months after initial launch. Waterland attributed the performance to strong support from existing investors combined with significant interest from new investors.

The fundraise attracted commitments from across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific from investors including asset managers, public and private pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, and family offices, among others.

The private equity fund will focus on control investments in medium-sized companies in fragmented growth markets in Europe. The partnership fund expects to make minority investments in a “very select number” of Waterland portfolio companies when these are exited by the flagship funds, the statement said.

“We look forward to making investments with both funds and continue to see many attractive opportunities in our target region despite the volatile macro environment,” said Frank Vlayen, Waterland Group managing partner, in a statement.

Kirkland said its team advising Waterland was led by investment funds partners Agne Eriksson, Andy Shore, and Christopher Braunack, among others.