BA Capital Partners Europe has completed its spin-out from Bank of America to create Argan Capital, while simultaneously closing on its first independent fund with total commitments of €425 million ($533 million).
The firm said fundraising took less than 6 months and was significantly oversubscribed, drawing interest from institutional investors from both North America and Europe.
In total, the new fund has 36 limited partners including pension funds, insurance companies and fund of fund managers. Bank of America is a minority investor in the fund.
Three managing partners Wojciech Goc, Carlo Mammola and Lloyd Perry will lead the team of 12 executives in following the firm’s decade-old strategy of acquiring European mid-market companies in the industrial, services and consumer sectors
Argan plans to make money by improving each company’s main business and taking on industrial transformation and international development.
It said the team has developed a particularly strong presence and portfolio of company investments in Italy, France, the Nordic countries and central Europe.
Argan has offices in London, Paris, Milan and Warsaw, investing recently in Paroc in Finland and Alfatherm in Italy.
Capstone Palomar Partners acted as global placement agent and Clifford Chance as legal counsel to Argan Capital.