Equistone Partners closes fourth fund after raising $2 bln

LONDON Jan 21 (Reuters) - Private equity firm Equistone Partners Europe on Monday announced the closing of its fourth European buyouts fund after raising 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion), in a sign of growing investor appetite for takeover deals.

The closing of the fund, which will target acquisitions valued between 50 million euros and 300 million euros, comes just over a year after the team was spun-out of British bank Barclays.

The fund was supported by more than 40 institutional investors largely based in Europe and North America. Two-thirds of the capital raised came from existing investors in earlier Equistone funds.