H.I.G. Capital, a leading global private equity firm, announced today that it has closed on H.I.G. European Partners, a dedicated fund to make investments in Europe. The Fund closed at its hard cap of €600 Million ($810 Million), and will facilitate the firm's plans to significantly expand its investment activities in Europe. H.I.G. has established a strong local European presence with offices in London, Paris and Hamburg.
Sami Mnaymneh, co-Founder and Managing Partner of H.I.G., stated: "As the largest and most active private equity firm focused exclusively on the small cap segment of the market, we believe there is a compelling opportunity in Europe to apply the same principles that have been the hallmark of H.I.G.'s highly successful investment strategy for the past 14 years, namely focusing on the lower end of the middle market (Enterprise Value below $200 Million) and using our significant in-house operating skills to meaningfully add value to our portfolio companies." He further added: "We believe there is a significant number of companies in Europe looking for an experienced partner to tackle challenges they face, be they operational or financial, or to fully capitalize on the many opportunities they may have available to them. With more than 100 investment professionals worldwide, we are building on our proven strategy of focusing on complex transactions, which has helped us generate IRR returns that are consistently in the top 5% in the private equity industry, since our founding in 1993. A number of our most successful investments to date have in fact been in Europe or have had a significant European component to them."
The firm has already recruited a number of senior European investment professionals to build its European team, including:
London:
- Matthias Allgaier (previously with Apax and General Atlantic Partners)
- Paul Canning (previously with Gresham Private Equity)
- Andy Steel (previously with The Home Depot)
Paris:
- Patrick Caron (previously with Bank of America Capital Europe)
- Thibaud Caulier (previously with PWC and H.I.G. Capital)
Hamburg:
- Wolfgang Biedermann (previously with Pricap Ventures)
- Zoltan Bognar (previously with Inventages Venture Capital and McKinsey)
- Jorn-Marc Vogler (previously with Arcadia and BCG)
H.I.G. expects to have more than 30 investment professionals in Europe before the end of the year. H.I.G. has already completed a number of transactions in Europe, including in the U.K., France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Most recently, in March of 2007, H.I.G. acquired Diam Europe, a leading French manufacturer of high end display fixtures with revenues in excess of €110 Million, as part of the restructuring of Diam's parent company.
Anthony Tamer, co-Founder and Managing Partner of the firm, added: "We are delighted with the strong vote of confidence from our existing LP investor base which allowed us to complete fundraising in record time. We will continue our long-standing practice of having a very flexible investment approach, providing attractive solutions to company owners and executives regardless of their companies' circumstances. We are equally comfortable making control investments or taking minority stakes, and can be valuable partners whether a company is a highly profitable market leader or is an underperformer/turnaround."
H.I.G. manages in excess of $4.5 Billion (€3.5 Billion) in equity capital across a number of strategies, including buyouts, venture capital, distressed debt, and public securities. It has made investments in more than 75 companies with combined annual revenues in excess of $7 Billion (€5 Billion). With more than 100 investment professionals, H.I.G. has offices in Miami, Atlanta, Boston, and San Francisco in the U.S., as well as London, Paris, and Hamburg in Europe. For more information on H.I.G., please visit our website at www.higcapital.com.
