Ex-Carlyle exec Sarkozy may seek up to $1.5 bln for debut fund

Olivier Sarkozy, the financial-services-focused executive who stepped down at Carlyle Group earlier this year, is working to launch his first fund, three sources told Buyouts.

Sarkozy’s firm will focus on financial-services investments, sources said. Sarkozy has already locked up anchor commitments and could target as much as $1.5 billion for the first fund, one of the people said.

The effort is in its early days and a target is not finalized, the sources said. Through a spokesman, Sarkozy declined to comment.

Sarkozy, the half-brother of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, resigned in May and moved into a senior advisory role at Carlyle. From 2008 to 2016, Sarkozy was a managing director and head of Carlyle’s global financial-services group, the firm’s website said.

Carlyle raised its first global financial-services fund in 2008, collecting about $1.1 billion. That fund was generating a 12.6 percent net internal rate of return and a 1.5x multiple as of March 31, 2016, California Public Employees’ Retirement System data showed.

Fund II closed in 2014 on about $1 billion and had deployed about $602 million as of June 30, 2016, Carlyle’s second-quarter-earnings report said. Fund II was generating a 1.1x multiple of invested capital as of the same date, Carlyle reported.

The firm named John Redett, a senior member of the financial-services team, and Brian Schreiber, who joined from AIG, as co-heads of the financial-services group to succeed Sarkozy.

Action Item: Carlyle’s second-quarter earnings report: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AMDA-UYH8V/2915111127x0x901476/E2263CC6-B600-437A-91FC-73B46D7D60E1/CG_2016.6.30_combined_earnings_release.pdf

Olivier Sarkozy, half-brother of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in New York on November 7, 2013. Photo courtesy Reuters/Andrew Kelly