Tag Archives: Funds

DIF CIF II reaches final close above €1.0 billion target size

DIF

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to announce the final close of DIF Core Infrastructure Fund II (“DIF CIF II”) at €1,012 million, exceeding its €1,000 million target.

DIF CIF II targets equity investments in the small- and mid-sized economic infrastructure market in pre-dominantly telecom, transportation and energy. DIF CIF II focuses on resilient companies and platforms that have a clear buy-and-build strategy – all with an asset-heavy business model. Its investments typically have medium-term contract cover and strong value enhancement potential. The fund targets both greenfield and operational investments, with a key focus on Europe and North America.

DIF CIF II is the successor fund of DIF CIF I, which held its final close in November 2017 at €450 million and invested in 13 companies and platforms in the telecom, energy and transportation sectors. DIF CIF II has seen strong backing from existing (both CIF and Traditional DIF funds) and new investors to the DIF platform, receiving commitments from leading institutional investors from EMEA and North America.

Allard Ruijs, Partner at DIF Capital Partners said: “We are thankful for the strong support received from investors for the DIF CIF II partnership. The CIF strategy is a relatively young strategy for DIF and the success of the fundraising of this second fund, especially during unprecedented and challenging Covid-19 times, shows the strength of the DIF platform and the attractiveness of the DIF CIF II proposition. The fact that many of our existing investors, from both DIF CIF I and the Traditional DIF funds, have backed this strategy proves that our investors value the complementarities of the two strategies. The fund will be leveraging DIF’s large global office network and dedicated local teams to source and manage attractive investment opportunities and build a resilient and diversified portfolio.”

DIF CIF II has made a strong start, having committed to five investments to date thereby deploying ca. 35% of the fund. This includes investments in (i) Valley Fiber, a Canadian telecom infrastructure platform, (ii) IELO, a French B2B wholesale fiber operator and developer, (iii) Touax Rail, a French railcar leasing company, (iv) 4th Utility, a UK fiber developer, and (v) Bartolomeo, an Irish container leasing platform. Furthermore, the fund has a strong pipeline of investments across its target sectors and geographies.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global independent fund manager, with €9.0 billion of assets under management across nine closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF Capital Partners invests in greenfield and operational infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized economic infrastructure assets in the telecom, energy and transportation sectors.
  • Traditional DIF funds, of which DIF Infrastructure Fund VI is the latest vintage, target equity investments with long-term contracted or regulated income streams including public-private partnerships, concessions, utilities, and (renewable) energy projects.

DIF Capital Partners has a team of over 160 professionals, based in nine offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto. For further information please visit www.dif.eu.

Contact: Allard Ruijs, Partner; a.ruijs@dif.eu.

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IK Investment Partners raises €1.2 billion in three months for third Small Cap fund

ik-investment-partners

IK Investment Partners (“IK” or “the Firm”), a leading Pan-European private equity firm, is pleased to announce that it has closed the IK Small Cap III Fund (“IK Small Cap III” or “the Fund”) at its hard cap with commitments of €1.2 billion. The IK Small Cap III Fund was significantly oversubscribed and allocated exclusively to existing IK platform investors in just three months, having been raised on a fully virtual basis.

The Fund is more than double the size of its €550 million predecessor, IK Small Cap II Fund, and was raised exclusively with the support of existing investors across the IK platform.

IK Small Cap III will continue to employ the same investment strategy focused on growing businesses across IK’s core sectors of Business Services, Healthcare, Consumer and Industrials and will make investments in companies with enterprise values of between €50 million and €150 million. The Fund includes a dedicated Development Capital pool which will focus on investing in smaller companies valued up to €50 million, in line with IK’s original Small Cap I Fund strategy.

IK launched its Small Cap strategy in 2015 and has since made 27 platform investments across two funds. The €277 million IK Small Cap I Fund has realised €425 million of proceeds, including seven full exits at a gross average 3.2x MM and 56% IRR.

IK Small Cap III will continue to support businesses through its active ownership model focused on organic growth, international buy-and-build, professionalisation and operational improvement. The IK Small Cap team of 30 investment professionals located across Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg, London, Paris and Stockholm will be supported throughout the investment process by IK’s dedicated Operations and Capital Markets teams.

The closing of the Fund follows a period of significant fundraising for IK, which has held a final close on funds with over €4.3 billion of commitments in the last 12 months, reflecting continued investor confidence and support despite the ongoing pandemic. This included the €2.85 billion raised for IK’s ninth Mid Cap fund, the IK IX Fund, in May 2020 and more recently the €303 million final close for IK’s Partnership Fund, a vehicle dedicated to making minority investments in larger, more established businesses.

Kirkland & Ellis International LLP acted as legal counsel to the Fund.

This press release is not an offer of securities for sale in the United States or any other jurisdiction and interests in the Fund may not be offered or sold in the United States or any other jurisdictions save in accordance with applicable law.

Kristian Carlsson Kemppinen, Head of IK’s Small Cap strategy and Managing Partner at IK, said: “Five years after we launched our first Small Cap Fund, we continue to see significant opportunities in high-potential European companies at the lower end of the mid-market. Despite the challenges we have seen throughout the pandemic, IK’s strategy has remained resilient and we are delighted with the continued support from our investors. With our Investment and Operations Teams based on the ground across all our key markets, we are ideally placed to support the transformation of local champions into European and international leaders.”

Pierre Gallix, Head of IK’s Development Capital strategy and Managing Partner at IK, said: “There continue to be a large number of opportunities at the lower end of the small cap market where we see significant potential for IK to support management teams in unlocking potential and realising growth. We have already identified a pipeline of future market leaders who we can support with our capital and expertise as they look to scale up and expand.”

For further questions, please contact:

IK Investment Partners

Maitland/AMO
James McFarlane
Phone: +44 (0) 7584 142 665
jmcfarlane@maitland.co.uk

About IK Investment Partners
IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is a Pan-European private equity firm focused on investments in the Benelux, DACH, France, Nordics and the UK. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €14 billion of capital and invested in 145 European companies. IK supports companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikinvest.com

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Ardian raises latest buyout platform at €7.5Bn to invest in high-potential businesses

Ardian

 

12 April 2021 Buyout France, Paris

• The fund exceeded its €6bn target, is already 50% deployed and aims to increase its exposure to North America.
• The fundraise follows strong portfolio performance over the past year, endorsing Ardian Buyout’s focus on growth-focused companies with strong fundamentals in resilient sectors.

Paris, April 12th, 2021- Ardian, a world leading private investment house, today announces it has raised €6.5 billion for its latest buyout fund, Ardian Buyout Fund VII. Ardian has raised an additional €1 billion via co-investments, which has extended the capacity of the platform to a total of €7.5 billion. The fund significantly surpassed the size of its predecessor, an increase of 60%, with long-term and new investors alike backing Ardian Buyout’s strategy of supporting ambitious management teams to turn regional champions into global leaders in niche markets. The investment strategy is focused on four core sectors of expertise: healthcare, the food value chain, technology and services. The approach encompasses three transverse themes, namely: buy & build, sustainable buyout, tech-enabled & digital solutions.

Ardian Buyout, which has over 52 investment professionals operating across seven offices, will invest the fund in line with its growth-oriented established strategy of backing growing European businesses with an enterprise value of up to €2bn. The fund will also target North American businesses for up to 10% of its size.

Ardian Buyout Fund VII attracted a global and diverse investor base, composed of 221 institutional and private investors, from 27 countries. Approximately a quarter of the fund’s previous investors represent over half of the total amount raised, substantiating the trust and loyalty established by the team. In addition, the fund composition is shifting and broadening. The HNWI investor category now distinctively make up nearly one tenth of the funds raised (8%).

Philippe Poletti, Member of the Executive Committee and Head of Ardian Buyout, said: “The success of our latest fundraise clearly demonstrates the continued trust in our approach by our investors. We are proud to have surpassed our target in such an extraordinary time. The sizable increase clearly shows the efficacy of our investment strategy, which is now truly hardship tested – and one which has a proven track record of six generations.

“Importantly, our investments have shown significant resilience across the past year, and we continue to see compelling opportunities in the market. Our focus on businesses with strong fundamentals in resilient sectors means we are well-positioned to invest in the next generation of global champions. In this unusual time, our ability to offer global investors access to growth-focused and sustainable investments is more compelling than ever before.”

Ardian has already committed 50% of the seventh-generation fund across eleven investments. The most recent transactions include Inovie (Medical Laboratory Testing, France), Angus (Specialty additives focused in Life Sciences and Personal Care, USA), AD Education (Creative Arts Education Platform, France) Jakala (Digital Marketing, Italy) and GBA (Food & Environmental Testing, Germany).

Over the past decade, Ardian has incorporated sustainability at the core of company transformation in order to shape high-performing and resilient business models providing measurable impacts on society and the planet. In the past year, the company has introduced a more refined and measured Sustainable Buyout Methodology, which aims to help today’s companies become the companies of the future – we see this as an important societal step and increasingly a clear proxy for company performance. The approach is focused on companies’ ability to transform themselves into more sustainable and more resilient businesses, which includes the ability to improve their positive impact while also reducing their negative impact.

In late 2020, Ardian also strengthened its Buyout team with the appointment of five new Managing Directors, with two external recruits, Scarlett Omar Broca in France and Heiko Geissler in Germany.

 

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$110bn managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering excellent investment performance to its global investor base.

Holding close its core values of excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship, Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 700 employees working from fifteen offices across Europe (Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Americas (New York, San Francisco and Santiago) and Asia (Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul). It manages funds on behalf of more than 1,000 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Fund of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.

 

PRESS CONTACTS

ARDIAN – Headland

CARL LEIJONHUFVUD

CLeijonhufvud@headlandconsultancy.com +44 (0)20 3805 4827

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The Carlyle Group Raises €1.35 Billion for CETP IV

Carlyle

  • Hits hard cap and nearly doubles the size of its prior fund
  • Leverages Carlyle’s deep technology expertise and global footprint to invest in lower middle market growth opportunities in Europe and the U.S.

WASHINGTON, DC and LONDON, UK – 31 January, 2019. Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) today announced the first and final closing of CETP IV, a €1.35 billion fund that invests in lower middle market technology-focused companies in Europe and the U.S. Starting the capital raise in October 2018, the fund received substantial limited partner interest, enabling Carlyle to nearly double the size of its prior fund and hit its hard cap. Investors across the world committed capital to CETP IV, including sovereign wealth funds, public & corporate pensions, insurance companies, fund of funds, foundations, family offices and high net worth individuals.

The transatlantic 19-person CETP IV team will continue its strategy of investing in business-to-business companies in the European and U.S. lower middle market.  Since the firm’s inception, Carlyle has invested $16.2 billion in 193 investments within technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) as part of Carlyle’s Corporate Private Equity segment, which has assets under management of $82 billion and 294 investment professionals.

Michael Wand and Vladimir Lasocki, Managing Directors and Co-Heads of CETP IV, said: “We are grateful for the confidence of our investors, many of whom are repeat limited partners, and we are pleased to broaden our capital base with a number of new institutional investors. Their support is valued along with their ability to move quickly, which enabled us to achieve our hard cap in only three months.”

“We believe Carlyle’s global platform, combined with CETP IV’s local sector-specialist team, makes us the right partner for entrepreneurs and management teams to build global businesses, as we continue our nearly 20-year focus on investing in attractive technology opportunities in the lower middle-market on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Kewsong Lee, Carlyle’s Co-Chief Executive Officer, said: “We want to thank our limited partners for their immense support, which is a testament to CETP IV’s long-term performance and the team’s distinctive capabilities and positioning in the market.  CETP IV harnesses Carlyle’s deep technology expertise, extensive global networks and substantial operating resources to create a clear edge in value creation.”

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About The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $212 billion of assets under management across 339 investment vehicles as of September 30, 2018. Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, many of whom are public pensions. Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,625 people in 31 offices across six continents.

Web: www.carlyle.com
Videos: www.youtube.com/onecarlyle  
Tweets: www.twitter.com/onecarlyle  
Podcasts: www.carlyle.com/about-carlyle/market-commentary

Media Contacts

UK:
Catherine Armstrong
Catherine.Armstrong@carlyle.com
+44 20 7894 1632

US:
Liz Gill
Elizabeth.Gill@carlyle.com
+1 202 729 5385

Margaret Popper/Devin Broda
MPopper@sardverb.com
DBroda@sardverb.com
+1 212 687 8080

Asia:
Tammy Li
Tammy.Li@carlyle.com
+852 2878 5236

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