Good evening,

Mark your calendars. Michael Lukin’s buyout firm Roc Partners is gearing up to raise $500 million for a new fund to bet on tomorrow’s winners.

Street Talk can reveal Roc Partners will next month hit the road to secure limited partner commitments for its new fund. Past funds – and earlier standalone deals – have been supported by Australian institutional investors including Aware Super, Spirit Super and Cbus.

This time around, Roc is expected to split the $500 million evenly across local and overseas investors, including Middle Eastern institutional money. The raise comes after Roc’s dealmakers on Monday collected two Agri Investor Awards, including Asia-Pacific agribusiness fund manager for 2023, and Asia-Pacific deal of the year – the latter for its acquisition of Australia’s second-largest egg supplier, Pace Farms.

The firm was established in 2014 after a management buyout of Macquarie’s private equity funds-of-funds unit, and now manages more than $8 billion. It has branched out into private equity buyouts and private credit, while carving a niche in agricultural businesses.

The 65-strong team has already tallied up more than 400 investments. With another $500 million on the way, the number should climb again. Roc’s bets in food and agriculture have included Wagyu beef business Stone Axe, glasshouse producer Flavorite, Australia’s Oyster Coast, Lachlan River Almonds and chicken farmer ProTen.

Roc would be hitting the fundraising trail at a time when rival buyout firm Pacific Equity Partners is working hard to round up $3 billion for its Fund VII which would be its biggest yet. On the venture capital side, Paul Bassat’s Square Peg Capital is expected to launch a new fund this year.

Lastly, Adrian MacKenzie and Srdjan Dangubic’s mid-market buyout firm Five V Capital recently closed a $700 million raise for their fifth buyout fund.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

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