Bolster Investment Partners holds first close for second fund

Loyens & Loeff is providing legal advice on the fundraise.

Asked about the timeline of the fundraise, Mark van Rijn, partner at Bolster, told Unquote: "We had initial discussions with LPs in April and May 2021, and we have been able to fundraise virtually and in person. Most of our first meetings were virtual, via Teams or Zoom for example. But most second or third discussions were face to face, as the investors wanted to see who we are, where we are located, and to meet the team."

The fund has a hard-cap of EUR 250m and it expects to reach a second or final close by the end of 2021.

Bolster's debut fund held a first close in December 2017 on EUR 135m, followed by a final close in February 2018 on EUR 160m. The fund is now fully deployed across 11 investments and 19 add-ons.

"The fund is only four years old, and we have a long-term investment horizon, so we have not made any exits yet," van Rijn told Unquote when asked about the performance of Bolster's first fund. "But we have already paid out some dividends, so there has been a flow of monetisation to LPs. The portfolio is performing well – last year, the EBITDA of our portfolio companies grew on average by 40%."

Bolster completed a spin-off from Van Lanschot Kempen towards the end of 2017, with the aim of forming a firm to make two to three Dutch companies per year via its debut fund. Bolster therefore also manages the former Van Lanschot Participaties portfolio, which has held long-term investments in companies including railway infrastructure consultancy Movares and direct drive motor technology firm Tecnotion.

Investors
Dutch bank Van Lanschot Kempen, the former parent company of Bolster, has committed almost 25% of the fund's capital. The fund has around 40 LPs in total, comprising private individuals, technology entrepreneurs, and single family offices, for whom the minimum commitment was EUR 2.5m. All of the fund's LPs have links to the Netherlands, van Rijn told Unquote.

Investments
The fund will follow the investment strategy of its predecessor, specialising in minority stakes in Netherlands-based family-owned companies. "It will be a continuation in what we do, investing in B2B market leaders in a niche area," van Rijn said. "Because we have a long-term investment horizon of 18 years and specialise in minority stakes (although we can also do majority), we are very familiar with doing business with family-owned businesses."

Bolster is currently seeing strong opportunities for its strategy, van Rijn added. "We are seeing more family-owned businesses open to this, often because there is no succession plan, so the owners are needing to look to the future. Due to Covid, they are seeing risks in their business that they had not identified before."

Although the fund will follow Bolster's established strategy, the vehicle can write larger equity tickets than its predecessor due to its increased size; Bolster's debut fund deployed EUR 5m-20m in equity, whereas Bolster II can deploy tickets of EUR 7.5m-40m. The fund will target businesses with enterprise values of EUR 30m-80m and expects to make 10-15 platform investments.

"We are expecting to make the first investment, and maybe even the second, in October, so we expect to make two to three new investments this year," van Rijn told Unquote.

The GP's current portfolio includes Arctic and Antarctic cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions, as well as climate control systems business Mark Climate Technology, both of which Bolster acquired in 2020.

People
Bolster Investment Partners – Joost Bakhuizen, Mark van Rijn, Michiel van Wissen (partners).

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