EQT mulls options in strategic review

According to a press report by Bloomberg, EQT could hold an IPO or try to attract an external investor, but most likely will not be selling the entire company. EQT declined to comment on a potential sale.

In a statement on EQT's website, the firm's CEO, Thomas von Koch, announced that the management team had decided to review options to further strengthen EQT's balance sheet.

The private equity firm simultaneously announced two senior hires as part of the review. Former head of human capital management at Goldman Sachs, Edith Cooper, is joining the EQT board of directors, along with Gordon Orr who had previously worked as senior adviser at McKinsey & Company. The new appointments will be joining the board with immediate effect, with Cooper based in New York and Orr in Hong Kong.

Publicly traded private equity firms are more common in the US than in Europe, with the likes of The Blackstone Group, KKR, The Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management listed on the stock exchange. In Europe, examples include London-listed 3i Group, Eurazeo in France, and Switzerland's Partners Group.

Since its establishment in 1994, EQT has expanded its investment reach to multiple areas such as venture capital, real estate, infrastructure and credit.

Its most recent large-cap buyout was German software company Suse, which EQT acquired on a cash- and debt-free basis for $2.535bn from UK-listed Micro-Focus International.

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