Warburg Pincus raises $11.2 billion for new buyout fund

Private equity firm Warburg Pincus raised $11.2 billion for its latest fund, one of the largest private equity funds since the global financial crisis.

The New York-based firm said on Friday that investors in the new fund, Warburg Pincus Private Equity XI LP, include public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and wealthy individuals, with a significant number of the new investors coming from outside the United States.

Warburg Pincus reached a final close of the fund within one year of closing the fund's first part, in line with its initial plan. The amount raised is slightly shy of the original target of as much as $12 billion. It is the firm's 11th global buyout fund.

"This successful fundraise, in a challenging environment, was driven by strong support from both existing and new investors," Warburg Pincus co-President Charles Kaye said in the statement.

Big buyout funds have struggled in a tough fundraising environment as their returns have been hit by tighter financing conditions. But Warburg markets its offerings differently, focused on growth investing rather than the usual financial engineering by leveraged buyouts.

Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has more than $40 billion in assets under management and has an active portfolio of more than 125 companies.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim in New York; editing by John Wallace)