Crest to hold final close for maiden fund

Launched with a €100m target, Crest I held a first close on €97m in April. According to the GP, the fundraising, which began in Q4 2017, was fast and limited to a small number of strategic institutional investors. Crest expects the fund to hit its €110m hard-cap in October.

The fund's LP base is mainly composed of international institutional investors, including funds-of-funds, pension funds and family offices. In addition, the GP told Unquote that the fund received strong support from a handful of Portuguese institutional investors and entrepreneurs. Furthermore, Crest's management team will commit €2.5m to the fund.

Crest I will deploy equity tickets of around €10m to acquire primarily majority stakes in approximately 10 Portuguese companies with EBITDA in excess of €2m. The fund plans to target profitable, fast-growing and export-driven SMEs operating in a variety of industries. It will not invest in the financial sector nor in real estate businesses. Crest will follow a conservative approach to the use of leverage in its transactions, not exceeding 3.5x EBITDA.

Unquote understands that the fund has already made its first investment, in Global Fire Equipment, a Portuguese company that develops fire detection systems. The deal was signed in June and is expected to close in September.

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• Topics
• Funds
• Buyout
• Southern Europe
• Portugal