NY (USA) — Gold­man Sachs Group has closed a $9.7 billion private equity fund, its largest since 2007, to invest in compa­nies with enter­prise values of about $750 million to $2 billion. — Inves­tors expect the best returns from the private equity asset class.

The fund is part of the Wall Street giant’s asset manage­ment busi­ness and is called “West Street Capi­tal Part­ners VIII.” It plans to invest an average of $300 million to acquire a majo­rity stake in compa­nies in the finan­cial and busi­ness services sectors, as well as in health, consu­mer, tech­no­logy and climate change.

“This fund­rai­sing builds on our 30-year history in private equity as we conti­nue to grow the busi­ness and bring our alter­na­tive offe­rings to a broa­der inves­tor base,” Julian Salis­bury, global co-head of Gold­man Sachs Asset Manage­ment, said in a state­ment. GSAM, as the busi­ness unit is known, mana­ges $2.5 tril­lion in assets, of which $176 billion is in private equity (PE).