Fundraising

Gilde launches new healthcare fund

The Dutch private equity firm is planning to raise €125 million for its second dedicated healthcare fund.

-

Netherlands-headquartered Gilde Investment Management has begun marketing its second healthcare fund, with a target of €125 million ($151 million).

We have already had discussions with our current LPs and their support has been overwhelming, meaning we can start in a very comfortable position.

Pieter van der Meer, investment director, Gilde Investment Management

Pieter van der Meer, an investment director at Gilde, told PEO that the firm began marketing the fund, Gilde Healthcare II, at the beginning of this year with the €125 million target, “although we may well exceed that”.

Van der Meer added that Gilde expects the vehicle to reach a first closing of approximately €75 million in the coming months. “We are aiming to hold a first close somewhere in the first half of this year, most likely in the second quarter,” he said.

A final close would occur within a year of the fund’s first closing, according to van der Meer, with the aim of meeting its hard cap by the end of 2006.

Investors in Gilde’s previous healthcare fund, Gilde Biotechnology & Nutrition, have already shown interest in the new vehicle, said van der Meer. “We have already had discussions with our current LPs and their support has been overwhelming, meaning we can start in a very comfortable position,” he said.

Gilde’s  €127 million predecessor healthcare fund, Gilde Biotechnology & Nutrition, was launched in 1999 with commitments from Rabobank, Novartis/Syngenta, European Investment Bank, Banco Sabadelli, Fibanc and Lagun-Aro.

van der Meer: first close likely in second quarter

The new fund will have a duration of 10 years, and will aim to make 15 investments in Western Europe and the US. The vehicle will commit a maximum of €10 million per investment. Van der Meer said that the firm would be “comfortable” with a return on investment of 20 percent but would aim for a higher figure.

In September of last year, Gilde Investment Management was sold by Rabobank to its management for an undisclosed sum. The firm operates out of offices in the Netherlands, France and Switzerland.