GP Profile: Bridgepoint

Click here to view a complete profile of Bridgepoint, including details of funds, LPs and investments on unquote" data

"We have tried to deliver a deeper mid-market proposition through the years," says Bridgepoint's chief investment officer, Guy Weldon, when asked about overall strategy. "We are used to competition in this space, but one of the reasons we like the mid-market is that on a pan-European basis there is a good volume of transactions to choose from."

The opening of an Amsterdam office in autumn is in line with the GP's strategy of going deeper and seeking to better cover the market as it evolves, and will add to the string of offices in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden, Turkey and Poland.

"Having an investment team on the ground in Amsterdam means that from later this year we'll be covering all our core markets in Europe directly," says Weldon, adding that the benefit of being truly pan European is that the GP does not have to invest all of the fund's capital into one economy or geography.

Outside Europe, Bridgepoint opened an office in New York last year and a Shanghai office around six years ago, which both focus on providing support to Bridgepoint's Europe-headquartered investments. Examples of this strategy in action saw UK foreign exchange provider Moneycorp make a US acquisition and sandwich shop Pret a Manger opening in China. 

Formative years
Plans are also coming together for the Bridgepoint Growth initiative, which will focus on smaller companies, with earlier stage investment to help with transformational growth. Once raised – it is rumoured to have a target of £100m and a final close in sight – the fund will invest €5-15m in companies with an EV of up to €30m.

Up until now, smaller investments were targeted by Bridgepoint Development Capital (BDC). BDC was set up more than five years ago to invest in companies with an EV of under €150m – just below the threshold where the flagship buyout strategy starts. The core buyout arm invests in companies with an EV of up to €1bn. 

Although Bridgepoint has had a capital markets team for more than 10 years, responsible for all the debt related to the GP's deals, there has also been recent talk of Bridgepoint being on the cusp of setting up a dedicated debt arm, joining the ranks or fellow private equity houses such as Permira, Ardian, TPG Capital and CVC Capital Partners, according to unquote" sister publication Debtwire. 

Two-pronged approach
The sponsor is currently investing from two funds: Bridgepoint Europe V, which raised €4bn at final close in 2015 and made 11 platform investments, equating to 65% of fund primary capital at end of March 2017; and BDC III, which exceeded its €500m target to close on its hard-cap of €600m in 2016. 

Previous fund BDC II was a €350m vehicle that is now fully deployed following a 14th and final platform investment in 2016.

"We have definitely seen more appetite for co-investment. It is a big industry change and in Bridgepoint Europe V we gave a lot of thought to it. We brought into the fund those LPs whose co-investment requirements could be met," says Weldon. "We'll probably end up with about €800m of co-investments in our €4bn vehicle when it is fully invested."

Returning money
Bridgepoint returned €1.6bn to its LPs last year, according to its 2016 annual review. The UK-headquartered private equity house sold 13 portfolio companies including French property management services group Foncia for €1.8bn, Oasis Dental Care for £835m, and five exits for BDC including Solhaga, Memnon and Beck & Politzer.

It also invested €1bn in eight new businesses in 2016 bringing its assets under management to €12.4bn: French dental and medical technology company Acteon; capital markets software provider Calypso; online transport group Cruise.co.uk; UK children's residential activity centre Inspired Learning; Turkish dried fruit and snacks business Peyman; Portugal-headquartered agricultural business Sapec-Agro; Polish kids' apparel and toy retailer Smyk; and Swedish functional drinks business Vitamin Well. 

There were also a total of 56 add-on acquisitions for its portfolio companies in 2016.

In the last 10 years, Bridgepoint has made 64 platform investments and 323 add-on acquisitions, and has €21.6bn committed as of the end of 2016.

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