Kirkland & Ellis advised Waterland Private Equity Investments on the formation of its ninth institutional flagship fund, Waterland Private Equity Fund IX (“WPEF IX”) at €3.5 billion, alongside Waterland Partnership Fund I (“WPF I”) at €500 million. Both funds were oversubscribed, closing at their respective hard caps just four months after initial launch. WPEF IX will focus on control investments in medium-sized companies in fragmented growth markets in Europe. WPF I expects to make minority investments in a very select number of Waterland portfolio companies when these are exited by the flagship funds. The Kirkland team was led by investment funds partners Agne Eriksson, Andy Shore and Christopher Braunack and associates Oliver Cutbill, Luke Scott, Yanru Tao, Richard Hughes, Aaron Stalley, Romain Michaux, Andrea Tomo, Charles Chang Chin Ter, Tom Colverd and Fraser Gowan. The team also included tax partners Ian Ferreira, Emma Faulkner-Hill and Philip Cooke and associates Loviisa Langdon and Krishan Patel; regulatory partners Thomas Woodhead and Joshua Westerholm; and employee benefits partner Sabrina Glaser.