Axcel holds first close for sixth flagship fund

The GP launched the fund in December 2019 and held a first close in February, Unquote has learned.

The GP is targeting to raise €800m for Axcel VI, and has already raised 77% of the amount raised by Axcel V, which held a final close in April 2018 on its DKK 4.8bn (c€617m) hard-cap.

The GP plans to continue fundraising through 2020, despite the coronavirus outbreak. 

The investors in the fund are mostly Nordic, though there are also international investors, and backers include pension funds, wealthy families, banks, funds-of-funds and foundations.

Axcel V was the first fund to be raised under Christian Schmidt-Jacobsen, the firm's managing partner who took over from founder Christian Frigast in June 2015 after a highly publicised struggle to find a replacement.

The fifth fund succeeded Axcel IV, a 2010-vintage buyout vehicle that raised DKK 3.6bn at final close.

Other big Nordic names currently on the fundraising trail include EQT, which is aiming to raise a substantial €14.75bn for EQT IX after launching earlier this year; and CapMan, which launched CapMan Buyout XI in 2018 and held a first close in June 2019 on €160m towards a €250m target. Norvestor VIII was also registered in 2018, while Polaris Private Equity V was registered in H1 last year with a target of €550m.

Investments
Axcel will focus on investments with an enterprise value of €75-250m for Axcel VI. 

The GP's sixth fund, like its previous vehicles, will invest in platform companies with headquarters in the Nordic region, but will look at bolt-on opportunities worldwide. Axcel has teams on the ground in Copenhagen and Sweden, and expects most transactions to occur in Denmark and Sweden. 

The fund will focus on goods and services across all sectors. It will target IT, technology, healthcare and consumer companies. It will, however, avoid physical retail businesses. 

The vehicle made its first investment recently by acquiring a controlling stake in Norwegian business SuperOffice for reportedly NOK 1bn (approximately €89m).

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