France's Apax Partners closes latest flagship fund on EUR 1.6bn

Apax said the fund was oversubscribed and met its hard-cap, having surpassed its EUR 1.2bn target. Unquote previously reported that the fund had already reached its target as of March 2020, but remained on the road to keep raising towards the hard-cap. The vehicle was launched in early 2019, according to Unquote Data.

Rede Partners and Jasmin Capital advised Apax on the fundraise.

The fund is around 60% larger than its predecessor, Apax Midmarket IX, which closed on EUR 1.03bn in 2016. That vehicle marked a significant step-up from its predecessor, Apax Midmarket VIII, which closed on EUR 700m in 2011 having launched before Lehman's collapse in 2008. The rough financial climate led Apax to halt the fundraising effort in 2009 before resuming with a first close in 2010.

Apax noted that its portfolio has fared well in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, with an overall portfolio valuation increase of 20% in 2020 compared with 2019.

The GP has been active on the exit front so far this year, with three divestments from its Fund IX portfolio.

These included the sale of a majority stake in holiday parks operator Sandaya to infrastructure firm InfraVia Capital; the deal valued the company at around €430m, according to press reports.

In February, Vitruvian Partners agreed to acquire a majority stake in Expereo from Apax; according to a Dutch publication, Expereo was said to have doubled in value to EUR 750m over the holding period.

In June, Apax sold Italian management consulting specialist Business Integration Partners to CVC Capital Partners in a deal reportedly valuing the company at around EUR 700m.

Investors
The fund received "strong" support from a number of existing investors, as well as new LPs from the US and Europe, Apax said. Investor relations partner Guillaume Cousseran told Unquote that 85% of Fund IX's investors have re-upped, with many of them increasing the size of their commitment in Fund X. Existing investors represent 75% of Fund X's LPs, he added.

The capital was primarily raised from pension funds, funds-of-funds, insurers and family offices.

Altamir, a listed vehicle that has historically backed Apax's funds, committed EUR 350m, according to Unquote Data.

Investments
Apax Midmarket X continues the firm's sector-focused investment strategy targeting technology, telecommunications, healthcare, services and the consumer sector. The vehicle will target businesses with enterprise values of EUR 100m-600m and will generally deploying equity tickets of EUR 100m-200m.

The vehicle is already around 20% deployed across three investments and intends to make 10-12 platform deals in total.

In September 2020, Apax entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire a majority stake in Groupe Crystal, a French investment and asset management consultancy; that same month, it struck a deal with Capgemini to acquire Odigo, a French contact centre specialist, in a transaction estimated to be valued at around EUR 280m.

In December last year, Apax entered talks to wholly acquire NL Mental Care in an SBO from NPM Capital.

Asked about the fund's deal pipeline, Cousseran told Unquote: "The pipeline is not huge, but it is good: we continue to see many attractive opportunities in our specialised sectors. Technology and healthcare have been accelerating very strongly due to Covid. We are planning to sign a fourth investment in the summer, and we are confident about our capacity to deploy at a regular pace."

People
Apax Partners – Eddie Misrahi (CEO); Guillaume Cousseran (investor relations partner).

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