• PF2 closes at $1.0 billion hard cap
• Team grows to 20 individuals
• Over $1.0 billion invested and committed in 18 closed or pending transactions since inception
• Firm well placed to capture growing market opportunity

TORONTO, September 4, 2018 – Dawson Partners (“Dawson”), a private equity firm focused on making preferred equity investments in private equity portfolios, today announced a successful final close for Dawson Portfolio Finance 2 (“PF2”) at its US$1.0 billion hard cap. This is in excess of its US$800 million target and more than double Dawson’s $400 million PF1.

Dawson’s diversified investor base is comprised of leading insurance companies, public and corporate pension plans, family offices, financial institutions and individual investors.

Yann Robard, Managing Partner of Dawson, said, “The success of our PF2 fundraise was driven by strong continued support from our existing investors base combined with the addition of a number of new investors. We continue to be very grateful for the confidence and conviction our investors have placed in Dawson. The increase in the size of PF2 reflects the significant scale of the market opportunity we see ahead of us, and we are now well placed to continue to capture this white space opportunity.”

Speaking to the growth in the team, Michael Gubbels, Partner of Dawson, said, “We have expanded the Dawson team to enable us to effectively capture the growing market opportunity. The team now consists of 20 professionals and growing. In just over a year, we have nearly tripled the size of our team focusing on the investment, operations and investors relations functions. We are extremely proud of the quality and talent of the individuals joining our organization and thankful for the efforts and dedication of the team over the past couple of very productive years”

With regards to the market opportunity, Giorgio Riva, Partner of Dawson, said, “Our novel, partnership-focused approach has resulted in rapid market adoption and a significant pipeline of opportunities. Our focus on offering nimble, customized and aligned liquidity solutions has been well received by the market. This has resulted in Dawson executing on 18 pending or closed transactions valued at over $1.0 billion since 2016.”

Rob Gavin, Senior Principal adds, “Dawson has established itself as a credible counterparty in the growing preferred equity market. Our innovative and aligned approach has been additive to the secondary market, offering a differentiated means of accelerating liquidity to investors with private equity programs and, in some cases, unlocking transactions that may not have otherwise been completed.”

Sean Connor, Chief Financial Officer of Dawson, said, “Dawson has continued to focus on building an institutional quality operations department by hiring a team of talented professionals. Our commitment to providing our investors with best in class reporting, support and service is paramount to our approach. Without investors, there would be no Dawson.”   

Kirkland & Ellis served as legal counsel for Dawson and PF2.

About Dawson Partners (“Dawson”)

Dawson is a private equity firm focused on making preferred equity investments in private equity portfolios. Dawson has identified what it believes is a significant and untapped market opportunity in the utilization of a preferred equity structure to generate liquidity on private equity portfolios and/or finance the acquisition of private equity portfolios. Dawson was formed in 2015 and seeks to provide customized and flexible liquidity solutions for private equity investors looking for alternatives to an outright sale of assets or traditional debt financings. For more information, please visit https://www.dawsonpartners.com.