Inflexion closes 2006 buyout fund

Inflexion Private Equity, a UK mid-market private equity investor, has closed its new 2006 buyout fund at £165 million (€245 million; $314 million). The firm now has £300 million under management. 
 

Turner:Inflexion will invest in growing niche markets

A total of 14 investors from the UK, Europe and US invested in the fund, comprising pension funds, fund of funds and other institutional investors. 
 
All limited partners from Inflexion’s £80 million 2003 vehicle invested in the 2006 fund. Returning investors include Nordic financial services group Nordea, property investment and development business London Merchant Securities and European asset management house Foreign and Colonial Asset Management.
 
Simon Turner, managing partner at Inflexion, said: “The excellent investor response to our fundraising reflects the strong performance of our investment team and the success of our strategy to date. We aim to build upon the success of the 2003 fund, and to remain focused in the UK small mid-market, where there is significant opportunity of out-performance.”
 
Inflexion maintained the fund’s hard cap to retain the firm’s focus on the smaller end of the UK mid-market, despite the fund being oversubscribed.
 
The firm will provide between £5 million and £15 million of equity to businesses in growth markets in transactions valued between £10 million and £50 million. The same strategy was used for the 2003 fund.

Last week Inflexion sold its entire stake in ACIS (Advanced Communications and Information Systems), in a secondary buyout to The Carlyle Group for between £60 million and £65 million, according to a source familiar with the deal.
 
Other recent investments include the MBOs of employment services company Parasol for £24 million, moorings business Viking Moorings for £22 million and technology recruitment company Red Commerce for £15 million.