Waterland VIII holds final close on €2.5bn hard-cap

The fundraising process took three months, the GP said in a statement, noting that the fundraise was completed entirely remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A source close to the situation told Unquote that the fund's pre-marketing was also conducted completely remotely and that the vehicle had a high re-up rate from existing LPs.

The fund was registered in October 2020 and is domiciled in the Netherlands.

MVision acted as placement agent for the fundraise, while Kirkland & Ellis and De Brauw provided legal advice.

The vehicle is the GP’s largest fund raised to date. Waterland Private Equity VIII held a final close in August 2017 on €2bn. The vehicle was 50% deployed as of September 2020, according to Unquote Data.

Waterland has made 112 platform investments and 542 bolt-ons to date, the GP said in a statement.

Investors
According to the same statement, the fund’s LP base includes institutional investors from a number of geographies. More than half of its LPs are based in Europe, while one third are US-based. The vehicle has also drawn commitments from a number of investors in the Middle East and the APAC region. The largest portion of the LP base is made up of public pension funds.

US pension funds PRIM and TCDRS have committed €65m and €90m to the fund, respectively, according to Unquote Data. The fund has more than 40 LPs, the source told Unquote.

Investments
Waterland VIII is to follow the same strategy as its predecessor, the GP said in a statement. The fund will not deploy larger equity tickets than its predecesor vehicle, the source said, but rather intends to make a greater number of deals.

Waterland VII has made 22 platform investments, as well as a series of add-ons for each portfolio company. Waterland VII deployed equity tickets of €2-25m and targeted mid-market companies based in Europe and operating in fragmented markets, with the aim of pursuing a buy-and-build strategy to consolidate these sectors.

The GP opened an office in Paris in September 2020 and one in Dublin in November 2019, and the fund is therefore likely to make more deals in these geographies, the source said.

Waterland’s platform investments in 2020 have included Denmark-based water, wastewater and biogas consultancy Envidan, which the GP acquired via Waterland VII in November 2020. The deal valued the business at approximately DKK 300m-400m.

In July 2020, Waterland sold Belgium-based environmental, health and safety IT platform Enhesa, a portfolio company of its €1.55bn sixth fund, in an SBO to CGE Partners.

People
Waterland Private Equity – Frank Vlayen (group managing partner); Marc Lutgen (head of investor relations).

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