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Simpson Thacher & Bartlett's London office took a lead role for longstanding Swedish private equity client EQT on the largest Europe-based fundraising of the past year, according to asset data company Preqin.

EQT Infrastructure IV closed in March with a hard cap of €9 billion, raising more than twice the amount of their third fund, which closed with €4 billion two years ago.

Simpson Thacher's London relationship with EQT started in 2011, when the firm's London managing partner Jason Glover joined the group from Clifford Chance. Glover has acted as fund formation counsel to EQT since 1999.

London-based Glover, who co-led the team advising EQT alongside fellow funds partner Rob Lee, told Legal Week: "What is remarkable is the ability of EQT to grow its infrastructure fund platform from a first fund of €1.2 billion less than 10 years ago to a fund of €9 billion today.

"EQT's continued fundraising success is a testament to both its successful track record over multiple investment cycles as well as the strength of its relationships with its investor base."

The London partners were assisted by partners from the firm's U.S. offices.

At the beginning of the year, analysis produced by data provider Preqin for Legal Week showed that EQT was ranked as the European buyout firm with the second largest pool of uninvested capital, with Simpson Thacher included as one of the firms set to benefit financially from EQT.

According to an EQT press release, the private equity firm held about €14 billion worth of infrastructure assets under management at the time of the fourth fund closing.

The release added that the latest fund would look at investments worth between €100 million and €600 million in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

The most recent data also shows that 70 funds closed in the first financial quarter of 2019, fewer than any of the quarters in 2018, though the total capital raised in the first three months of this year surpasses the values raised in Q2 and Q3 last year.