EQT closes €350m turnaround fund

Northern European private equity firm EQT has announced a final close on its new turnaround fund, EQT Opportunity Fund, with commitments of €350 million.
 
The fundraising, officially launched in October, was heavily oversubscribed according to the firm, exceeding its original target of €250 million.
 
EQT Opportunity Fund will invest in corporate restructurings, turnarounds, insolvencies and ownership issues in the Nordic region and German speaking countries.
 
The fund received commitments from existing EQT investors – including Investor AB, which contributed approximately 25 percent of the total fund commitments – as well as unnamed new investors.
 
Håkan Johansson, managing partner of EQT Opportunity, said in a statement: “The establishment of EQT Opportunity was initiated in order to take advantage of the large number of opportunities we were seeing in ‘special’ and distressed situations which are outside the investment focus of the larger EQT equity funds. We see this as a natural extension of our buyout business and are convinced that we will be able to turn around companies that find themselves in troublesome situations and thereby create value for our investors.”
 
EQT Opportunity Fund is believed to be the first turnaround vehicle in the Nordic region, and is the second new investment strategy to be added to the firm’s core LBO activities. In 2003, EQT closed a dedicated mezzanine fund, currently being invested by a team of seven professionals.
 
EQT is currently investing EQT IV, its €2.5 billion buyout vehicle, which closed in August 2004.
 
MVision Private Equity Advisers acted as global placing agent on the latest fundraising, while Clifford Chance provided legal advice.
 
EQT has offices in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Frankfurt and Munich and is headed by managing partner Conni Jonsson. It was founded in 1994 by Investor AB, Scandinavia’s largest holding company, which is controlled by the Wallenberg family.