Charterhouse eyes France's Funecap

Funecap was founded and is managed by Thierry Gisserot and Xavier Thoumieux, via their investment company Groupe Ophiliam. The holding currently owns a majority of the shares.

ICG provided Funecap with €350m in unitranche debt at the end of last year. Approximately €190m was used to refinance two bond lines that ICG had set up in 2015 and early 2017. The remaining €160m was meant to be used to finance the company's ongoing investment and acquisitive growth strategy. The debt package had some covenants attached and did not trigger a dividend for shareholders.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Paris, Funecap was running 600 funeral agencies and 28 crematoriums as of November 2017. Funecap's EBITDA amounted to €30m in 2016. The total turnover for 2017 was expected to reach €270m, including €110m from franchises.

The French funeral services sector has attracted significant PE interest over the years. Pamplona Capital Management notably became funerary service Groupe OGF's majority owner in September 2013 for an estimated €900m. Two years later, it exited a 30% stake to Canadian pension fund Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTTP).  In 2017, Pamplona sold an additional stake to OTTP, which became its majority shareholder with a 74% stake.

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• France
• Consumer
• France
• Charterhouse Capital Partners