Capital Croissance closes fund on €75m

Ellie Pullen
13 January 2015

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Capital Croissance has held a final close for its Cairn Capital I fund on its hard-cap of €75m.

The fund was oversubscribed, according to Capital Croissance, with almost €85m being offered. Its investment period will run until 2018.

Investors
Cairn Capital I counts mainly private investors in its LP pool, with 80% of the total €75m raised provided by 115 private investors.

The fund's private investor base comprises entrepreneurs, including Hugues Souparis of Hologram Industries and Lionel Puget of Axcel Technologies; managers such as Jean-Paul Vivier of LVMH and Stéphane Baseden of Cognis and Unilever; investment fund partners such as Hervé Couffin of Callisto, Nicolas Paulmier of Cinven and Gérard Tardy and Michel Jolivet of Permira; families including the Parmentier and Delloye families; and the heads of small and lower-mid-market businesses, including Tony Lesaffre of Europcar and Jean-Marie Painvin of Deutsch Group.

The remaining 20% of the capital raised was provided by BPI France and Axa France.

Investments
The fund will invest in French small and lower mid-cap companies valued at €30m or less that generate €3-50m in revenues. Cairn Capital I will execute management buyouts, buy-ins and owner buyouts. The fund will also provide growth capital.

The vehicle will invest €2-10m per company. This can increase to €15m if co-investing alongside other firms.

Cairn Capital I has already carried out two investments. In April 2013, the fund invested in Safe, a French medical research company specialising in animal nutrition. In September last year, the fund invested in BioBank, a French orthopaedic and dental graft company.

People
Eric Neuplanche is the president of Capital Croissance.