Graphite holds £470m final close for ninth fund

Kenny Wastell
24 July 2018

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Graphite Capital has held a final close for its ninth fund, Graphite Capital Partners IX, on around ТЃ470m.

The total amount committed is 4% more than the £450m raised by its predecessor, which closed in 2013.

According to Unquote Data, Burness Paul provided legal advice to Graphite on the fundraising.

Graphite managing partner Markus Golser told Unquote that the firm did not formally use a placement agent for the fundraising process, though the GP was introduced to some LPs by placement agents on a case-by-case basis.

Graphite Capital Partners IX has an industry standard fee structure with a five-year deployment period and a five-year divestment period, Golser confirmed.

The new vehicle has surpassed its target and is close to its hard-cap, subject to the completion of certain formalities and agreement of details, Golser said.

The vehicle had no formal launch date, though the fundraising period was consistent with Graphite's track record of raising predecessor vehicles, which typically took around six months, according to Golser.

Investors
There are a total of 25 investors in the new vehicle, of which 16 are existing and nine are new. Existing investors account for 75% of the total capital committed to the vehicle. Geographically, 44% of commitments were accounted for by UK LPs, with 40% from continental Europe and the remainder from the US and Japan. Capital Dynamics is among the investors in the fund, according to Unquote Data.

Investments
Graphite Capital Partners IX will invest exclusively in UK companies and will make 8-12 investments, primarily in businesses with enterprise values of £30-150m. However, the fund will also make some investments in smaller companies that the GP considers to have the potential to "expand through the roll-out of new sites".

The GP focuses on management buyouts, though it also makes replacement capital, expansion and turnaround investments.

Investments made by Graphite's eighth fund include home care provider City & County Healthcare Group, recruitment business Ngage, energy maintenance company ICR Integrity, pub operator New World Trading Company and industrial machinery installation company Beck & Pollitzer.

People
Graphite Capital – Andy Gray, Markus Golser (managing partners).