Graham Winfrey

The $24bn pension has made $125m in re-up commitments as part of its new strategic investment plan.

Following a strong first quarter of 2012 that saw ‘wide open’ capital markets in the US and Canada, lending has taken a significant hit, largely due to continued uncertainty in Europe.

Chief investment officer of 3i Simon Borrows, formerly an investment banker at Greenhill & Company, will reportedly replace 3i chief executive officer Michael Queen.

The emerging markets-focused firm is targeting twice the amount of its previous fund and will invest in sectors including infrastructure, manufacturing and financial services.

LPs searching for new GP relationships have expressed a preference for debt funds and lower-mid market strategies, says partner at CTC Consulting JB Hayes.

Natural Gas Partners has created its third offshore oil and gas company under the “Northstar” brand after selling its previous two offshore businesses for a combined $466m.

While some private equity firms have had capital markets teams for years, it is only relatively recently that other GPs have added in-house staff dedicated exclusively to financing activity.

More than a dozen GPs have agreed to contribute data to a global private equity database being developed by the Private Capital Research Institution and Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner.

KKR Natural Resources' latest deal brings its total capital deployed since 2010 past $900m, and leaves it with about $1.1bn of available capital remaining for new investments.

CPPIB’s private investments chief Mark Wiseman will take over as chief executive following the retirement of David Denison in June. Wiseman joined CPPIB from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in 2005.