Essling holds €100m first close for Essling Expansion

The fund, marketed since June last year, held the first close in December and recently completed its first transaction with Evolucare Group, a developer of medical software for healthcare institutions.  

The private equity team of French asset management firm Massena span out and rebranded as Essling Capital in 2017. The new entity was set up and is owned by Massena founder Frank Noël-Vandenberghe and Michele Mezzarobba, who joined Massena in 2015 as a partner to head up the firm's non-listed activities.

Essling kicked off by managing co-investments, which are the minority transactions the team was specialised in when working at Massena. The GP held a final close for its second co-investment fund Essling Co-invest 2 on €116m in 2018. The vehicle aims to acquire minority stakes in LBOs over a 12-month period, investing between €10-30m per deal.

Essling subsequently expanded its activity to funds-of-funds as well as majority buyouts, recruiting professionals from existing teams and raising new funds, Unquote understands.

In 2017, it recruited the funds-of-funds team of limited partner Amundi Private Equity. Last year, Bertrand Fesneau and Rémi Matuchansky joined the firm as co-managers of Essling Expansion. They both worked for 3i and CM-CIC LBO Partners for 17 years. 

Investors
Essling Expansion is currently backed by family offices, high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors, including regional banks including Caisses d’Epargne and pensions funds such as  CARAC, ProBTP and SHAM.

LPs are mostly based in France but the GP expects to receive more commitments by European investors in the next phase of the vehicle’s fundraise.

Investments
Essling Expansion will target majority acquisitions or significant minority stakes. It intends to pursue domestic and international buy-and-build strategies. 

The fund will invest in 10-12 fast-growing small and lower-mid-cap companies in the technology and healthcare sectors, providing equity tickets in the €10-40m range. Portfolio companies will typically have a €25-200m valuation. 

People
Essling Capital - Bertrand Fesneau, Rémi Matuchansky (co-managers of Essling Expansion); Charles Bourgain (associate). 

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