Schroder Ventures Europe becomes Permira

01 December 2001

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Schroder Ventures Europe has announced that it has changed its name to Permira and that it has realised its first exit in France since the name change. The move is the culmination of a long migration for the firm from its founder and former parent, the Schroder Group. Permira has been operating in European private equity for 16 years out of offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Milan. Originally founded by Schroders in 1985, Schroder Ventures operated as a collection of separate businesses across the world, run by a different management team in each place, whose only common factor was the parent company. In 1989 the Schroder Ventures firms became owned by their employees, on a partnership basis, with the Schroder Group taking a fixed yearly income of 15% of the management fee and a quarter of the carry. Five years ago the four European branches formed a single partnership and since then the Schroder Group has become less and less involved; in mid-1999 it stopped receiving a share of the management fee and its share of the carry was reduced to 10%. However Permira and Schroders will continue to work together where suitable opportunities arise.

Since 1996 Permira has launched two funds under the Schroder Ventures Europe name; Schroder Ventures European Fund, which closed on over $1bn in 1997 and Schroder Ventures European Fund II, which closed last year on Euro 3.5bn. Following the name change these funds will be known as Permira Europe I and Permira Europe II respectively.

The name Permira was chosen within the company and is the Latin for Â‘very surprising, very differentÂ’. As Charles Sherwood of Permira says, the name was chosen by employees to reflect their internal view of the company; Latin is a language familiar across Europe, highlighting PermiraÂ’s pan-European business outlook, and Â‘very surprisingÂ’ describes the companyÂ’s self-stated tendency to approach deals a little differently to the norm.