Tikehau hires Ricardo Sommer as head of PE Germany

Wahida Ahmed
07 March 2022

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Tikehau Capital, a global asset manager, has appointed Ricardo Sommer as head of its German private equity division.

Sommer will be responsible for PE activities in the DACH region, with a particular focus on growth equity, energy transition and decarbonization strategies, according to a press release.

Sommer's appointment will bolster the firm's local presence in the DACH region, following the firm's opening of its Frankfurt office in March 2021.

With more than 15 years of experience in PE, Sommer joins from pan-European GP Silverfleet where he was a partner for over 3 years working on lower mid-market investments in western Europe. Prior to that, he was at Quadriga Capital, a mid-cap sponsor based in the DACH region, where he was a director and an investment manager at Syntegra Capital. He began his career at Boston Consulting Group where he worked on private equity projects and industrial goods, according to a press release.

Tikehau completed its first private equity transaction in Germany with the acquisition of delivery service provider nox NightTimeExpress by portfolio company Groupe Sterne in February.

The firm said that its short-term goal will be to strengthen its real assets and capital markets business divisions in the DACH region, complementing its private equity and private debt offerings, according to a press release.

Tikehau is deploying equity via Growth Equity Fund II, which held a final close in December 2020 on EUR 375m having held a first close on EUR 150m in July 2018 and an interim close in December 2019 on EUR 370m, according to Unquote Data.

The fund backs businesses based in western Europe operating in the technology, healthcare, industrial and consumer sectors, with EBITDA in the range of EUR 5m-EUR 50m; it will seek to make 10-12 deals. The vehicle deploys tickets in the range of EUR 20m-EUR 75m and the GP will take minority stakes in the business, according to Unquote Data. Recent deals from the fund include the buyout of Proprietes-Privees, a France-based real estate service exclusively online, in January 2022. The GP is also investing through T2 Energy Transition which closed at EUR 1.1bn in February 2021.