Access closes co-investment fund on €226m

The vehicle is the firm's first ever co-investment fund and was launched in the second half of 2014. It reached a first close on €70m in November that year. As of Q1 2016, the vehicle had raised €180m, beyond its initial target of €150m.

Earlier this year, managing partner Philippe Poggioli told unquote" why the firm decided to raise a dedicated vehicle: "A co-investment activity is potentially a source of conflict of interest; we wanted to formalise our strategy, away from the fund-of-funds activity, to avoid this. The fund is managed by a specific team, totally independent from the fund-of-funds offering, with a dedicated investment committee and incentives."

As highlighted in our profile of Access in February, the firm enjoyed a particularly busy fundraising year for its buyout strategy in 2015. Access raised close to €1bn, including €644m for its latest fund-of-funds in May 2015, and a €200m mandate for a large German institutional investor in the first quarter of that year.

As of Q1 this year, the firm was understood to be eyeing a launch for its seventh generation fund-of-funds before the end of 2016, for a potential closing in 2017.

Investments
The co-investment fund will look to make 15 direct deals across its lifespan, at the smaller end of the European buyout market. Nearly half (46%) of the fund's capital has already been invested in eight small-cap businesses located in the UK, France, Denmark, Germany and Italy, according to ACP.

Access told unquote" earlier this year that 90% of its co-investments are being done with managers the firm works with on the primary side. "Our sourcing strategy is to leverage a GP base that we are familiar with. We currently have around 90 relationships with managers, and most of the time we are among the largest investors in their funds – usually starting at around 10% and sometimes reaching 30% of the fund size," said Poggioli.

People
Access Capital Partners – Agnès Nahum, Philippe Poggioli (managing partners).

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