French activity picks up post-summer

August has always been a relatively quiet month when it comes to French private equity dealflow, as local GPs enjoy some much needed time off and take stock of the market before facing the September rush. More prosaically, many deal-doers tend to wait until people are back at their desks before announcing their latest transaction in the hope of generating more buzz. But the slowdown was particularly noticeable this year: save from the €50-60m SBO of jewellery retailer Cleor by 21 Centrale Partners and a handful of exits (such as the €44.8m trade sale of iXO-backed Visualization Sciences Group), few deals were announced in August.

A volatile macroeconomic outlook and drawn-out sale processes are of course to blame. One Paris-based GP also points at the uncertainty surrounding the eventual outcome of the country's capital gains tax reform as having encouraged a cautious "wait and see" approach throughout the summer.

The verdict is not likely to garner cheers from the local LBO community, but announcements have at least been coming in at a much steadier pace in September. OpenGate notably bought Zodiac Recreational from its Carlyle-owned parent, while IK's Paris team jumped the queue to grab speciality chemicals business Unipex Group from AXA Private Equity, a deal valued in the €150-200m range. HgCapital also achieved a rare corporate spin-off acquisiton by completing the buyout of Rio Tinto's alumina business.

September is seeing a surge in deal activity as French players get back in the game

On the growth capital side, technology company Sigfox drew in a hefty €10m round from an Intel Capital-led consortium. AXA PE also kept its streak going by investing €3m in data collection company Place des Leads, while FSI Régions progressively returned to its steady stream of small transactions.

In what is probably this month's most encouraging news, some players also took advantage of the summer break to make headway with their fundraising efforts. Capzanine's latest vehicle reached a €200m first close, Idinvest raised €100m towards a €200m target for its dedicated secondaries fund, and Montefiore hit its third mid-cap vehicle's €180m target. Latour Capital is also understood to have just held an interim close on €90-100m for its latest FCPR.

Marching on
Partner Rémi Buttiaux, who led the Unipex deal for IK, believes the subdued activity witnessed in the past few months at least means that banks are behind budget and open for business. "There is a clear window of opportunity in terms of the availability of financing for the best assets," he says. "So even though the first few months of 2012 were indeed calm, things could change in the autumn with several processes likely to start."

The next three months could also see a few anticipated deals finally coming to fruition. The buyout of garden products retailer Jardiland is still on the cards for instance, but "is taking a very long time to unravel", says one adviser. Other assets, from takeaway chain Pomme de Pain at the smaller end of the market to Sun Capital-owned clothing group DBApparel in the large-cap segment, could also give French dealflow a much needed boost.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• France
• France
• Top story