
Sagard NewGen holds first close for €300m first fund
French private equity firm Sagard NewGen has held a first closing for its debut fund, which focuses on the European healthcare and technology industries.
The fund was launched in July 2020 with a €300m target and held a first close just south of €150m, the GP told Unquote. It expects to hit its target and hold a final close by the end of 2021.
The fund is led by three founding partners: Bérangère Barbe, Agnès Huyghues Despointes – both formerly partners in Sagard MidCap fund – and Guillaume Lefebvre, who is joining the team from Keensight Capital.
"Sagard NewGen will benefit from the extensive platform of Sagard Holdings, which is able to provide a high value-added ecosystem with an international network via its offices located in Paris, Montréal, Toronto and New York," said founding partner Guillaume Lefebvre.
Sagard Holdings is a multi-strategy alternative asset manager with around $4bn in assets under management. In addition to NewGen, it is the sponsor of several vehicles: Sagard IV, which was launched in February with an €800m target and focuses on mid-market companies primarily based in France; Sagard Healthcare Royalty Partners, which held a first close on $475m in January 2020; Sagard Credit Partners, which is dedicated to debt investments across North America; and two venture capital funds – Diagram and Portage Ventures.
Investors
The capital for the first close was provided by Sagard NewGen's anchor investors: Sagard Holdings, the holding company of the Canadian Desmarais family, and Belgium-based family office Sienna Capital.
The fund plans to resume its fundraising from mid-2021, attracting a diversified group of LPs. Its base will include a majority of international LPs and a large number of family offices, which have historically accounted for around 50-70% of Sagard's LPs, the GP told Unquote.
"We expect a smooth fundraising next year and plan to attract the interest of existing and new investors, considering that our two verticals are among the most resilient segments in the private equity market," said founding partner Agnès Huyghues Despointes.
Investments
Sagard NewGen invests in majority and minority stakes of European companies operating across the healthcare and technology sectors, generating EBITDA of €2-15m and revenues of up to €150m.
The fund deploys equity tickets in the €10-50m range. It intends to use moderate leverage of 3x EBITDA on average, only when useful to optimise the expansion, buy-and-build and growth strategy of its portfolio companies.
The vehicle will target businesses based across Europe, with a special focus on western Europe, southern Europe and the Nordic region.
Sagard NewGen has already made its first investment, by taking part in a €40m round for Laboratoires Delbert, which specialises in acquiring and reintroducing drugs affected by supply shortages. The company expects to reach revenues of €15m in 2020.
Sagard NewGen invested an equity ticket of around €10m to acquirie a minority stake in the company, while a consortium composed of Socadif Capital Investissement, Idia Capital Investissement and MACSF deployed an additional €10m in equity. The reminder €20m was a unitranche facility provided by BPI France Investissement and CIC Private Deb.
The fund has a rich pipeline and plans to invest in at least one more company by the end of the year, the GP told Unquote.
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