Keensight closes Fund IV on €250m

Ellie Pullen
08 October 2014

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Keensight Capital has held a final close for its new fund, Keensight IV, on its hard-cap of €250m after less than six months on the road.

The firm, which span out from Rothschild Group in November last year and was previously known as R Capital Management, began fundraising for the vehicle at the end of May with a €200m target, unquote" learned at the time.

Keensight IV hit this target in July, when the fund held its first close. The vehicle is the first fund raised by Keensight since its separation from Rothschild and is the fourth vehicle to be managed by the firm since its establishment as R Capital almost 15 years ago.

According to the firm, its investments since inception have generated an overall IRR of 40%. It has invested in 38 companies and executed 28 exits.

Investors
Institutional investors make up 90% of the fund's LPs and include former parent company Rothschild, as well as BPI France, Banque Cantonale de Genève and the European Investment Fund, all of which are historical backers of Keensight's funds.

Keensight IV also welcomed 10 new European institutional investors, including the pension fund for European nuclear research organisation Cern, CNP Assurances and Allianz France.

The fund's institutional backers comprised pension funds, insurance firms and banks. Almost all of the firm's historical LPs subscribed to the new vehicle.

Investments
In keeping with the strategy of its predecessors, Keensight IV invests €10-30m in European companies with revenues of €15-150m. It can take either minority or majority investments in all-equity or leveraged deals.

Key investment opportunities for the firm are in the internet, media, IT, communications, healthcare and services markets.

Since the beginning of the year, Keensight has carried out three new investments. In January, the firm took part in a management buyout of France-based Smile Open Source Solutions alongside Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, with Keensight taking a majority stake.

In April, the firm joined LBO Partners and Turenne Investissement in the secondary buyout of orthopaedic prostheses supplier Menix Group. Most recently in September, Keensight and Isai acquired a minority stake in Parisian online marketing company Labelium.

People
Jean-Michel Beghin is a managing partner at Keensight.