Afinum holds final close on €410m hard-cap

Oscar Geen
21 September 2017

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Afinum Management has held a final close for its eighth buyout fund, Achte Beteiligungsgesellschaft, on its €410m hard-cap.

The GP announced plans to raise a new fund in 2017 when it hired investment director Carsten Abdel-Hadi from Aurelius in October 2016.

A regulatory filing from March revealed a target of €400m and confirmed the registration of the vehicle as a KG in Germany.

The latest vehicle is substantially larger than its predecessor fund, Afinum Siebte Beteiligungsgesellschaft, which held a final close on €280m in April 2013.

Afinum aims to invest €100m of equity capital per year in mid-sized companies in the DACH region.

The GP's team comprises 21 members in total, of whom 13 are investment professionals.

The fund has a standard 10-year life with two optional one-year extensions. It has a standard two-and-twenty management fee structure with an 8% hurdle. It was structured by law firm P+P Pöllath + Partners.

Investors
Afinum reports a high number of returning investors as well as a number of "renowned" new investors.

LGT Capital Partners is the largest LP with a 17% stake in the new vehicle, according to a source close to the situation. The LP also made the largest commitment to the GP's previous vehicle, taking a €45m stake in the fund, according to unquote" data.

The fund is "more German" than before with around 70% of commitments coming from German LPs, according to the source. In the previous fund, 55% of investors were German LPs, while 65% came from the DACH region, according to unquote" data. The remaining 35% were made up of LPs from Luxembourg, the UK and the US. The dataset accounts for €192.5m, or 68% of commitments.

Investments
The new vehicle will take majority stakes in the buyouts of mid-sized companies in the DACH region. Its average equity ticket size will be €20-50m and the GP expects to make 12-14 investments.

Historically, the GP has made more than 90% of its investments in this region, with the remaining deals taking place in Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, according to unquote" data. The data also reveals a sector bias towards industrials, where it has made 47% of its investments, followed by consumer goods at 25% and technology at 11%.

People
Afinum Management – Thomas Bühler, Gernot Eisinger (managing directors).