MetLife Inc.’s investment arm announced Monday that it has launched a $1.2 billion fund to expand the scale of private capital it manages for institutional investors. The new fund, MetLife Investment Private Equity Partners II, purchased a portfolio of approximately $860 million in funded and unfunded private equity and equity co-investment interests totaling $975 million from MetLife affiliates as part of a managed secondary sale transaction backed by funds managed by lead investor Lexington Partners LP.
“MIM continues to expand its client solutions with this new fund, which leverages our leading private equity investing capabilities and further demonstrates our leadership in private markets investing,” said John McCallion, MetLife’s chief financial officer and head of MetLife Investment Management. “Our strong long-term track record of private equity investing helped us create this differentiated investment solution.”
MIM syndicated a portion of the transaction to other unaffiliated institutional investors, and MIM expects to deploy approximately $250 million into the new private equity opportunity on behalf of the fund.
The portfolio of assets acquired by the fund consists of approximately 50 globally diversified private equity and equity co-investments. The sale follows strong returns from MetLife General Account’s private equity portfolio, which held $14.3 billion in private equity assets as of March 31, 2024.
“We are excited to partner with MIM on this innovative transaction,” said Will Warren, partner and president at Lexington Partners. “MIM Private Equity Partners II represents a high-quality, diversified portfolio that we believe stands out in today’s secondary marketplace, and we look forward to working with MIM on this upcoming investment.”
MIM’s private equity team has deployed more than $20 billion in alternative investments between 2010 and 2023. Evercore acted as advisor to MIM on the transaction.
