Gilde closes first institutional fund on €150m

Gilde Equity Management Benelux has closed a new institutional fund at its target and hard cap of €150 million, after a six month’s fundraising.  

The fund will be invested in small to medium-sized buyout transactions in the Benelux region, a market where GEM Benelux has invested during the past ten years.

The new fund is Gilde’s first closed-end partnership. Until now, it has invested an evergreen fund on behalf of the Dutch bank Rabobank.

Under the banner Gilde Participaties it completed 30 transactions between 1996 and 2006, producing returns of 3.7 times invested capital to date on realised and partially realised buyout transactions.      

Thirteen institutional investors committed to the fund, including Allianz Private Equity Partners, a client advised by Altius Associates, the European Investment Fund, FLAG Capital Management, Rho and Proventure. 

Rabobank, GEM Benelux’s long-standing investor, continued its support by committing 20% of the fund’s capital.

The fund was launched in April 2006, and had a substantial first closing in early August and a final closing at the end of September.

Gerhard Nordemann, co-managing Partner of GEM Benelux, said: ”Given that we were not previously known to the mainstream private equity investor base, the process of establishing the fund has been significantly quicker than expected.”

GEM Benelux’s six member investment team will continue to focus on making investments in transactions of an enterprise value ranging from €15 million to €75 million, principally in The Netherlands.
 
The fund was placed by Helix Associates. The fund’s legal adviser was Loyens & Loeff in Amsterdam.