BEX ditches fees for NGOs in $365m fund close

Fund III is BEX’s first to offer ‘X shares’, which are exempt from management fees and carried interest, for non-governmental organisations and major non-profit foundations.

BEX Capital, a niche buyer of stakes in funds of funds and secondaries funds, has scrapped fees and carry for certain limited partners in its third fund of funds secondaries vehicle.

The Nice-based firm held a one-and-done close on BEX Fund III on $365 million, more than triple its €120 million predecessor, according to a statement. The fund closed above its $280 million target and $350 million hard-cap, with 90 percent of Fund II investors re-upping.

Fund III is BEX’s first to offer ‘X shares’, which are exempt from management fees and carried interest, for non-governmental organisations and major non-profit foundations. The move would allow such organisations to reinvest their gross return towards good causes.

BEX’s third fund will acquire positions in predominantly mature private equity funds of funds, secondaries funds and co-investment funds. The larger fund size will allow the firm to “access transactions that were previously beyond our scope”, managing partner Erwin Roex said in the statement.

The firm switched to US dollars from euros for its third fund to align the currency of the fund with the assets it targets. About two-thirds of the assets the firm buys are dollar-denominated, founder Benjamin Revillon told Secondaries Investor in January.

In an interview last June, Revillon told Secondaries Investor the firm saw $3 billion-worth of fund of funds and secondaries fund opportunities in 2017. Drivers of dealflow in the market for second-hand stakes in funds of funds and secondaries funds are the same as the broader market, he said. LPs in such vehicles want to be able to manage their portfolios in the same way they manage their portfolios of direct funds, Revillon added.

BEX has seven staff and manages more than €500 million in assets, according to its website. The firm relocated to Nice from Paris in the second half of last year.