It signals the end of an era for Archer, which has been one of the country's most successful buyout investors in the last two decades.

Not raising a new fund means it will have no capital to make new investments and will focus on running and selling its eight existing portfolio companies.

It comes following an unsuccessful attempt to raise a new fund last year, and as Archer has struggled to sell some of its current crop of investments.

Street Talk understands a handful of Archer's key backers - sources pointed to the Future Fund, MLC and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority - were cautious about signing up to a new fund.

Archer has seen some turnover in its ranks in the past five years, including senior dealmakers Greg Minton, Andrew Gray and Rishabh Mehrotra.

Wiggs joins the list of dealmakers on the way out.

Frewin and Gold paid tribute to Wiggs' "outstanding contribution" to the firm, its investors and the industry over the past 21 years in Friday morning's letter.

"As all of you know, Peter is 'one of a kind'. His intellect and investment acumen combined with humility, humour and grace have benefited the entirety of Archer's investment program."


Archer's move is indicative of wider changes in the Australian private equity landscape, with a number of established players opting to pull up stumps rather than raise fresh funds. Ironbridge Capital and CHAMP Ventures have also stopped making new investments and are winding down existing portfolios.

Archer raised five buyout funds and two growth funds over the past two decades, investing $3.2 billion in 46 acquisitions worth $6.5 billion in total.

It has fully existed 30 of those investments, returning investors 3.2-times their cash investment at a 32 per cent internal rate of return.

Archer told investors that its senior management team - Frewin, Gold, Frank Heckes, Mark Wilson, Jeff Lim and chief financial officer David Bull, would remain in their current roles to maximise returns for their existing investments.

Investors expect Archer to slowly liquidate its portfolio over the coming three-to-five years.

Its existing portfolio includes V8 Supercars, Red Rooster and Oporto owner Craveable Brands, aged care provider Allity, car dealership group Autopact, biotech New Zealand Pharmaceuticals, data and analytics company illion (formerly called Dun & Bradstreet) and Kiwi education roll-up aspire2.