ICG closes European Corporate fund on EUR 8.1bn

Min Ho
03 August 2022

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Listed private investment firm ICG has raised EUR 8.1bn for the eighth vintage of its flagship European Corporate fund, exceeding its EUR 7bn target.

The fundraising nearly doubles the EUR 4.5bn raised from its 2018 vintage, Europe VII, according to a statement.

Europe VIII, which was launched in May 2021, will follow its predecessor's strategy and make debt investments in European midmarket companies. Its tickets will be in the range of EUR 100-700m in 15 to 25 European midmarket companies with enterprise value of EUR 300m to EUR 3bn, according to Unquote data.

"This strategy has historically done particularly well in periods of greater volatility and this successful fundraising provides us with the dry powder to fully take advantage of the opportunities arising from the current market environment," said Benoît Durteste, CIO and CEO of ICG in the statement.

Durteste noted in its results call in late May that its strategies' core focus are generally on software, particularly subscription-based, core healthcare services, education, infrastructure, all of which are "inherently less cyclical and also less exposed to inflation risk", he said.

Investors
The vehicle attracted commitments from over 100 LPs, including 33 new clients across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the US, incorporating a range of investors, such as large public pension schemes, institutional clients and insurance firms, it said.

Among LPs are Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana, which has committed USD 75 million to the fund, according to Unquote Data.

The multi-billion Euro close for the strategy comes as ICG raised USD 4.5bn for its funds during the last quarter ending June. Final closes were held for Strategic Equity IV ISD USD 4.2bn total fund size, and Asia Pacific IV with USD 1.1bn total fund size.

"During fiscal year ‘22, we decided to pull forward fundraising, in particular for Europe VIII," said Durteste. "This was very timely. In a market that is crowded for private equity strategies in 2022, we have substantial capital available to take advantage of opportunities. And on the fundraising front, we can focus our efforts on our flagship Senior Debt Fund and our Real Assets strategies, all of which are logically in demand in the current market environment," he said.

In a sign of its fundraising confidence, ICG is accelerating its fundraising and guiding expectations of raising at least USD 40bn cumulatively in three years - one year earlier than it had previously guided, he added.