Coller Comes Up Short –

Best known in recent months for taking ownership of Lucent Technologies Inc.’s venture portfolio, London-based secondaries investor Coller Capital is $275 million short of its $1 billion target for its fourth investment fund, Coller International Partners IV.

Fund raising since February 2001, the fund completed a second close of $724 million at the end of April. Sacramento-based California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), an investor in two previous Coller funds, made a $100 million commitment to the fund. Other investors include the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, which has committed $75 million to the fund, and Barclays Bank UK Retirement Fund, which has committed $42 million. Both are first-time investors with Coller.

The fund is expected to take secondary positions primarily in Asia, Europe and in the U.S. In addition to the Lucent deal, the firm is also known for its $1 billion play for the entire private equity portfolio of NatWest Equity Partners in October 2000, when the bank was taken over by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and its acquisition of Houston’s Shell Oil Pension Trust’s entire $265 million private equity portfolio in June 1998. According to CalPERS, the firm has achieved an average discount to fair market value at purchase of 22%.

The 13-year-old firm closed its most recent fund, Coller International Partners III, in January 2001 with $501 million of investment capital.