DH Private Equity Partners registers new fund

Denise Ko Genovese
13 June 2017

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DH Private Equity Partners, formerly known as Doughty Hanson, registered a new fund last month on the back of recent rebranding efforts.

The firm – one of the oldest private equity houses in the market – registered a new fund last month, according to filings with Companies House. While rumours had been mounting since the start of the year, this is the first firm indication of the sponsor being on the fundraising trail since founding partner Nigel Doughty died in 2012, prompting DH to abandon fundraising for its sixth fund a few years later in 2015. The GP had aimed to raise in the region of €2.5bn.

Click here to view a complete profile of DH Private Equity Partners, including details of funds, LPs and investments on unquote" data

The group tweaked its name in May, rebranding as DH Private Equity Partners to reflect the firm's new broader ownership structure and sole focus on private equity.

The new branding and new fund marks an end of a two-year hiatus for the private equity house, which saw it focus purely on its portfolio companies. As of today, all but four have been sold – Asco, KP1, TMF and Zobele. Last year the sponsor divested its remaining shares in TUMI as well as its stake in LM Wind Power; and in 2015 it sold Balta and Eurofiber. Through its 30-plus years of investment, DH has owned a string of well-known brands such as 20:20 Mobile, ATU and Vue Cinemas.

Founded in 1985, DH is one of the oldest active private equity houses, spanning more than three decades and multiple vehicles. Its core focus has always been mid-market European private equity, investing in businesses headquartered in northern Europe with an enterprise value of between €200-600m. It previously had two additional separate products – an opportunistic European real estate fund as well as an early-stage technology venture capital fund, though the sponsor announced in 2013 that it would no longer be pursuing either of these two strategies but instead focus on its core of mid-market private equity.