By Chibuike Oguh
(Reuters) - U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital LP said it has raised $11.8 billion from outside investors and employees for its latest flagship North America buyout fund.
The fundraising comes amid a rebound in dealmaking activity among private equity firms as the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has boosted global economic prospects and markets.
Bain amassed $10 billion from outside investors for its 13th buyout fund, Bain Capital Fund XIII, exceeding an initial $9 billion target. The firm's present and former employees also committed $1.8 billion in additional capital to the fund, a Bain spokeswoman said.
Bain's latest fund will seek to invest in a broad range of assets from consumer and healthcare companies to technology firms mainly in North America.
"We will continue to find interesting, transformational deals by leveraging our global resources and experience, our sourcing network, and vertical industry depth," John Connaughton, co-managing partner at Bain Capital, said in an interview.
The prior Bain Capital Fund XII, which had collected $8 billion from investors and raised an additional $1.4 billion from employees, made investments such as Virgin Australia airline, industrial firm Imperial Dade, and chipmaker Kioxia Holdings, which was carved out of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba (OTC:TOSYY) Corp in 2017.
That fund succeeded the Bain Capital Fund XI, which had raised $7.3 billion from investors and its dealmakers.
Bain Capital Fund XII and Bain Capital Fund XI have generated net internal rate of returns (IRR) of 7.2% and 28.5% respectively as of the end of December, according to people familiar with the matter.
Based in Boston, Bain Capital has more than $130 billion in assets under management across private equity, credit, real estate, technology, life science, and public market holdings.