Essling founder sells business to private investors

Domnin de Kerdaniel and Filippo Monteleone have bought the business from Chestone Investment Group, controlled by the family of Vandenberghe. De Kerdaniel has 20 years' experience in private equity, including at CVC Capital Partners, 3i and KKR; Monteleone is the founding president of CareIT and former deputy CEO of Ramsay Générale de Santé.

The two investors started their career together at Worms & Cie and teamed up five years ago to develop an investment platform in the European healthcare sector. They have advised and invested in several transactions, including Eurazeo's C2S Group and several transactions by Essling.

De Kerdaniel will now be CEO of Essling, with Monteleone becoming chair of the supervisory board. They will continue working with the current teams (Essling Co-Investissement and Essling Expansion) and intend to launch an investment initiative dedicated to the European healthcare sector in the near future, they said in a statement.

Dechert and Scotto Partners provided legal advice on the deal, with Clearwater International and Eight Advisory also advising the buy-side.

Chestone and Vandenberghe were advised by investment bank DDA & Company and law firm Joffe & Associates.

The private equity team of French asset management firm Massena Partners span out and rebranded as Essling Capital in 2017, forming a new player that managed €1bn across a spectrum of private equity strategies at the time.

Massena founder Vandenberghe initiated the project alongside Michele Mezzarobba; the former initially held 80% of the firm, with Mezzarobba owning the remaining 20%.

Mezzarobba left the firm in Q1 2020, as reported. Vandenberghe bought out Mezzarobba's 20% stake and was left the sole owner of the business. In addition, he took on the role of chair, overseeing the strategy, but leaving the operational oversight to the rest of the team.

Around that time, Essling abandoned its fund-of-funds strategy. Essling recruited the fund-of-funds team of limited partner Amundi Private Equity shortly after its launch in 2017, and went on to begin raising its first vehicle. Ultimately, the offering was not met with the required level of appetite, Unquote reported. Click here for an in-depth look at Essling's initial fund-of-funds strategy

The fund-of-funds team – led by Jean-Yves Lagache and including other ex-Amundi professionals – departed the business in Q1 2020 as well.

Essling proceeded to refocus on two core strategies: its initial mandate of co-investments, and its "lead investment" arm, which focuses on majority and minority buyouts. The firm is still in the midst of raising two funds for these strategies, but the Covid-19 crisis means that the timing of further closes was pushed back, Unquote reported in April last year.

Essling collected in excess of €90m for Essling Co-invest 3 at first close in November 2019 and was initially aiming for a final close on €120m in Q1 2020, although this was pushed back. Meanwhile, Essling is also looking to raise €250m for Essling Expansion, dedicated to its buyout strategy. The firm held a €100m first close in February 2019 last year, with a final close originally targeted in Q3 2019. The revised timeline for a final close was not firmed up as of April 2020, though the fund had collected around 50% of its target at that time.

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