Deals

Equita closes oversubscribed third fund on €315m

Demand for Equita Fonds 3, the Quandt group’s latest German mid-market fund, has almost doubled its firepower to €400m when co-investment commitments are included.

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Equita, the private equity arm of the Harald Quandt group, has closed their third fund on €315 million ahead of its original €250 million target.

Investors with co-investment rights have raised the total firepower available for deals to €400 million.
 
The fund raised €133 million before its first closing in late 2005. Fundraising was reactivated in mid-2006. 

Unlike the two previous funds raised by Equita, 60 percent of of the capital came from entrepreneurs and their family offices. Only one third of investment came from institutions.

This is in line with its avowed entrepreneurial focus, backing German-speaking family-owned companies that are often hostile to private equity because of its Anglo-Saxon management style.

The fund is open-ended in a structure or ‘evergreen’. Dividends from investments are paid back but the capital is intended to remain in family-owned entrepreneurial companies.

Fund one raised €120m in 1992 and fund two raised €211m in 2000.