Axa Private Equity to spin off from parent company

Under the proposed offer, Axa PE's management team and employees, led by long-standing CEO Dominique Sénéquier, will acquire a 40% stake. Axa will retain 26.86% of the private equity arm. The remainder of the shares will still be held by a group of institutions and French family offices.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in Q3, would value Axa PE at €510m. Axa Investment Managers, the Axa subsidiary that currently controls the private equity arm, would receive €488m from the sale.

The consideration would be divided into an upfront payment of approximately €348m and deferred consideration up to €140m, to be paid in installments subject to achieving certain targets.

Axa will remain an investor in Axa PE's funds, and has announced it will commit a further €4.8bn between 2014 and 2018.

The deal will put an end to months of speculation surrounding one of Europe's largest private equity investors. Axa put its private equity arm up for sale in September last year, reportedly to comply with the upcoming Solvency II requirements.

The process went on at a leisurely pace in the following months, with Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC once tipped as likely buyers. The sale process was believed to have been halted for most of 2012 given the fiscal uncertainty prevalent in France following the Q2 elections.

Axa PE was nevertheless on to a particularly busy year in 2012, taking part in more than 20 transactions across Europe, including the €850m buyout of Fives from Charterhouse in France in July.

The firm also managed to secure $7.1bn for its secondaries fund-of-funds and $900m for its primary investment fund-of-funds in mid-June. It followed up on this announcement by acquiring a portfolio of 11 private equity fund investments and related unfunded commitments from Omers Private Equity.

Recent weeks have seen the GP delve further into private debt: it arranged the largest ever European unitranche financing package earlier in March, providing PAI partners with a €220m loan to finance the €460m buyout of IPH.

Axa PE is also considering entering the private banking market drawing on existing advisory experience within private wealth, according to an interview given by the firm's chief executive Dominique Senequier in the French press. Axa PE also intends to grow assets under management to around $50bn. 

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• Axa Private Equity