Bahrain-based alternative investment manager Investcorp said on Monday it was forming a $1 billion European private equity portfolio with Coller Capital. 

Investcorp, founded in 1982, is one of the oldest Middle Eastern private equity houses and is targeting $50 billion of assets under management over the medium term. 

London-based Coller Capital’s Coller International Partners VII will underwrite the new fund, in which Investcorp said it will retain “a meaningful general partner commitment”. 

The deal also includes fresh capital for any follow-on investments and future investments. Investcorp sad it will manage both the assets acquired through the secondary transaction and the fund’s new capital, as it invests in mid-market buyout transactions across Europe. 

In 2017, Investcorp bought an $11 billion asset under management credit management business and in 2018, a strategic minority investment in Banque Paris Bertrand, an independent Swiss-regulated private bank.