Robertsau Investissement leads acquisition of Cofintex

01 June 2002

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Robertsau Gestion, which is member of Groupe Sade, and Banque Martin Maurel have coordinated the acquisition of the venture capital firm Cofintex from GAN Assurance Vie. Cofintex was originally formed from two venture capital investment companies, Oberon and Finance et Communication, which were merged following the acquisition by Groupama of GANÂ’s activities in mid-1998. Cofintex will adopt the name FinanciÃ¨re de Bellecour, and will transfer its headquarters from Paris to Lyon. It will be managed jointly by Robertsau Gestion and Grignan Capital Gestion, a subsidiary of Banque Martin Maurel, and its chairman will be RenÃ© Jeanroy, who is also chairman and managing director of Grignan Capital Investissement. Following the acquisition, Robertsau Investissement plans to exit companies in the existing portfolio, which currently number around 20 minority shareholdings valued at EUR 11.5m, most of which have been in the portfolio for more than four years. This process is expected to take around five years, and result in resturns for institutional investors. Companies in the FinanciÃ¨re Bellecour portfolio include the Bordeaux-based packaging company Abzac, the EUR 90m turnover pharmaceuticals group Agettant, the book publishing arm of Ouest France, Edilarge, and Flash Film, the founder of which is Jean-FranÃ§ois Lepetit, who produced Trois Hommes et un Couffin.

Under the terms of the deal, Robertsau Investissement invested equity in a newco, la SociÃ©tÃ© FinanciÃ¨re de la SaÃ´ne, alongside two Caisses de Retraite et PrÃ©voyance (Apicil and Monceau). Leverage was provided by Groupe Sade, Fortis Bank (which has since taken over Groupe Sade) and Banque Martin Maurel. The acquisition of Cofintex forms part of the long-term strategy of Robertsau Gestion, which could, if the current project is successful, carry out similar acquisitions in the future. The team also intends to continue working closely with the Martin Maurel group on projects in the RhÃ´ne-Alpes region. For Groupama, the transaction fits with its plans of moving towards higher value unquoted investments which it will carry out through Finama Private Equity.