François Fillon joins Tikehau Capital as partner

Fillon will be based in the firm's Paris office and will start in his new role on 1 September. With this latest addition, Tikehau now counts 30 partners within its team.

A source familiar with the matter told unquote" that discussions over the former minister's appointment had begun in June, with "various common relationships between him and Tikehau having enabled the meeting between both parties".

Within Tikehau, the partner's role will be two-fold: on one hand, he will oversee SME financing in France, where the firm is particularly active through its private debt activity; and secondly, he will assist it in its deployment into new territories.

"Mr Fillon has been in politics for the past 30 years, and his unique insight into French economics and politics are particularly of interest to us," the source said. "His experience on the international scene will also be absolutely key, with international expansion currently one of Tikehau's priorities."

Fillon ran as the centre-right Les Republicains candidate in the French presidential election earlier this year. Although he had won the primary of his party in 2016 with a large majority and was originally tipped as a front-runner in the election, reports accusing him of having used more than €800,000 of state money to finance potentially fictitious jobs for his wife and children dealt a serious blow to his bid. He was eventually knocked out in the first round of the election.

As a politician, Fillon first served as labour minister in 2002 under Jean-Pierre Raffarin's government until he was named minister of national education in 2004. In 2005, he was elected as senator, while his role as adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy in the run-up to the 2007 presidential election, which eventually led to Sarkozy's victory, paved the way for his appointment as prime minister the same year.

Fillon remained prime minister for the whole duration of Sarkozy's mandate, eventually resigning when François Hollande was elected in 2012.

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