Activa Capital to launch €200m fourth fund

Alessia Argentieri
06 March 2020

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French GP Activa Capital intends to launch its fourth buyout fund with a €200m target in the coming months, Unquote understands.

The fund will be the same size and employ the same investment strategy as its predecessor, which raised €206m in 2015 and is almost fully deployed. It recently inked its 10th investment with the acquisition, alongside Arkéa Capital, of a 50% combined stake in French engineering service Ingeliance.

"We have found our niche market, where we have a competitive advantage, deep know-how and strong expertise," Activa Capital managing partner Christophe Parier told Unquote. "That's why we intend to stick with that and continue to target the lower- and mid-market with a focus on the B2B services segment."

Activa Capital IV will make 10-12 investments supporting the management buyouts of French companies operating in the B2B services industry. It will target businesses with enterprise values of €20-100m and deploy equity tickets in the €10-30m range, and up to €60m in co-investments.

The fund will pursue an intense buy-and-build strategy across France, but also elsewhere, with the aim of consolidating the market position of its portfolio companies and creating several strong aggregation platforms in the B2B services sector.

The fund expects to build an LP base primarily composed of European institutional investors – mostly pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies, as well as family offices – mainly from the UK and Scandinavia, and a minority of LPs from the US.

Several investors from the third fund are expected to re-up to this new vehicle, while some new LPs interested in deploying smaller tickets for a fund entirely dedicated to the lower- and mid-market will join the LP base.

Established in the early 2000s, Paris-headquartered Activa is managed by a team of 20 professionals led by managing partners Christophe Parier and Alexandre Masson. Its first vehicle held a first close in December 2002 on €90m and a final close in December 2003 on €162m. This was followed by the first and final close of its second FCPR fund on €315m in 2007, before the third fund was raised in 2015. Standout deals by the firm have been consumer-focused assets such as desserts brand Materne-Mont Blanc, bike manufacturer Look and household linens brand Linvosges.