Vestar Capital Partners expands Paris operations

01 April 2001

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Vestar Capital Partners, a US private equity investment firm, is expanding its Paris operations. Robert Rosner, who heads VestarÂ’s European operations from Paris, has been joined by Vincent Fesquet as executive director and Jean-FranÃ§ois FÃ©lix as vice president. The Paris office was set up in September 2000 by Rosner, who was previously VestarÂ’s managing director in New York, prior to which he was a member of the management buyout team at First Boston. Fesquet joins from BC Partners, where he has been a member of the Paris team since 1997, working on deals such as Elis, NÃ©opost and Pollyconcept. Formerly, he spent seven years with Arthur Andersen in Paris. Meanwhile, Jean-FranÃ§ois FÃ©lix joins Vestar from Equinoxe Industries, the European subsidiary of the US private equity house Dimeling Schreiber & Park. Previously he worked for three years at McKinsey & Company in Paris.

Vestar Capital Partners specialises in management buyouts, recapitalisations, and growth capital deals. Founded in 1988 by seven former members of the First Boston CorporationÂ’s LBO team, Vestar has offices in New York, Denver and Milan as well as Paris, and soon hopes to expand into Germany, Spain and the UK. The team has so far made around 50 investments with an aggregate value of more than $13bn. It typically carried out transactions of around $100m-$1bn+ and currently has 18 companies in its portfolio. Vestar has $4bn under management. It is currently investing Vestar Capital Partners IV, a $2.5bn fund raised in December 1999. Around 20% of the fundÂ’s total has been earmarked for investment in European companies active in traditional manufacturing and service sectors. The firm will adopt a buy-and-build approach on a cross-border level, which explains the emphasis placed on the integration between all offices in the US and in Europe. Vestar intends to make around four investments altogether in France and Italy over the coming two years, and will invest a maximum of $150m of equity for each deal.