Reuters – Carlyle Fund Hits $2B Mark

Carlyle Group, the world’s second largest alternative asset manager, has clinched $2 billion for its latest U.S. private equity fund, a fifth of its fundraising target, a person familiar with the matter said. Carlyle Partners VI, the firm’s sixth flagship U.S. private equity fund, which has a target of $10 billion, reached a fundraising close after launching in January, Reuters reported Wednesday. Carlyle declined to comment.

(Reuters) – Carlyle Group LP (CG.O), the world’s second largest alternative asset manager, has clinched $2 billion for its latest U.S. private equity fund, a fifth of its fundraising target, a person familiar with the matter said.

Carlyle Partners VI, the firm’s sixth flagship U.S. private equity fund, which has a target of $10 billion, reached a fundraising close after launching in January, the source said. Carlyle declined to comment.

Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein said last month on the firm’s first earnings call that he expected the fund to achieve its first fundraising close, securing commitments from investors, in the second quarter of 2012.

The fundraising environment for private equity remains challenging, with 23 funds raising an aggregate $18.5 billion in the first quarter and taking an average of 20.9 months to raise the money, topping the previous average high of 20.4 months for funds closing in 2010, according to market research firm Preqin.

Carlyle’s chief operating officer, Glenn Youngkin, said on Tuesday at a conference that a number of fundraising closes for Carlyle Partners VI would occur over the course of the summer. Carlyle went public in May in a $671 million IPO.

Bloomberg News reported on Carlyle’s fundraising earlier.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in Boston; editing by Andre Grenon)