France's Pragma Capital rebrands, eyes new fund launch

Greg Gille
@unquotenews
13 April 2018

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

French GP Pragma Capital has rebranded to Sparring Capital and is aiming to raise a fourth fund with a higher target than its current vehicle.

Founded in 2002, Sparring has raised three funds to date. Its latest effort, Pragma Capital III, had an initial target of €250m but ultimately held a final close on €110m in November 2016 due to internal team strategy changes. It switched its focus to backing small-cap buyouts with an enterprise value in the €15-75m range, investing between €7-15m, mostly for majority stakes.

Current team leaders Arnaud Leclercq and Denis Catz took over in 2016 from founders Jean-Pierre Créange and Gilles Gramat – who still remain on the board.

With its third fund now deployed at 50%, Sparring is looking at raising a fourth vehicle with a higher target than the €110m on which Pragma III closed. However, the GP said it would not look to move away from its existing strategy of deploying equity tickets in the €7-15m range. The fund would instead be more likely to back a higher number of transactions.

Sparring also said it would be looking at the consolidation opportunities currently at play in the French GP landscape, with the potential to integrate new teams and/or develop new activities.