Hg Saturn holds final close on £1.5bn hard-cap

Kenny Wastell
22 October 2018

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Hg has held a final close for its first large-cap vehicle, Hg Saturn 1 Fund, on its hard-cap of ТЃ1.5bn.

The software-focused fund will be overseen by the firm's senior partner, Nic Humphries. The firm also recently hired Blackstone Group's Michael Biehl as a director to work on its large-cap strategy.

Hg has previously invested in medium-sized northern European companies in the TMT sector. It is currently deploying capital into this space from HgCapital 8, which closed on its hard-cap of £2.5bn in February 2017, and targets companies with enterprise values of between £100-500m.

According to a statement from the GP, its software investments have delivered a gross return multiple of 2.8x and gross IRR of 37% over the course of the last 15 years.

Speaking at a recent industry event, Hg managing partner Matthew Brockman pointed to "industrial scale" as the defining feature of the current direction of private equity. Brockman added that the Saturn fund would allow the GP to continue to invest in larger software companies in order to continue to build the required industrial scale.

Rede Partners acted as placement agent on the fundraising and Proskauer provided legal advice.

Investors
Hg Saturn 1 received commitments from new and existing investors including funds-of-funds, pension funds, foundations and corporates. According to Unquote Data, investors in the vehicle include Allianz Capital Partners, BBC Pension Scheme, Colorado Health Foundation, GKN Group Pension Scheme, HarbourVest Global Private Equity, MetLife Investments, Pantheon Ventures, Partners Group, AP6 and StepStone.

[For more details of Hg Saturn 1 Fund's LPs, visit the dedicated entry on Unquote Data]

Investments
At the time of its launch, Hg stated that the vehicle will make three or four investments, writing considerably larger equity tickets than Hg's other funds. The fund targets companies with equity requirements of more than £500m and enterprise values in excess of £1bn.

The vehicle is already 40% invested in two businesses; UK-based accountancy and operational software business Iris Software Group, acquired from Hg's 2008-vintage sixth flagship fund for £1.3bn in May this year, and Norwegian HR, accounting and management software company Visma, for which it led a €4.76bn SBO from KKR and Cinven in June 2017.

People
Hg – Nic Humphries (senior partner).