Nordic Capital: 10th buyout fund with €6.1bn in total commitments

Copen­ha­gen — Nordic Capi­tal raises €6.1bn remo­tely for its largest fund. The vehicle, the firm’s largest capi­tal pool to date, has consider­a­bly surpas­sed its initial €5bn target within just six months. Laun­ched in April this year, the fund was enti­rely raised remo­tely amid the pande­mic, without any face-to-face meetings, the firm said.

The successful fund­rai­sing comes at a time when fund closings have slowed down due to the pande­mic travel rest­ric­tions and the econo­mic down­turn. Globally, 552 private equity funds reached their final close in the first half of the year, 31% fewer than in the same period last year, accor­ding to data provi­der Preqin.

“We laun­ched this fund in the middle of a global pande­mic, which requi­red inves­tors to comple­tely alter their invest­ment proces­ses to enable remote dili­gence. The success of the fund­raise despite these chal­lenges reflects the inves­tors’ considera­ble confi­dence in Nordic Capital’s stra­tegy and team,” Pär Norberg (print), head of inves­tor rela­ti­ons of Nordic Capi­tal, said.

Most of Nordic Capi­tal Fund X inves­tors are from North America, follo­wed by Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm’s exis­ting port­fo­lio perfor­mance since the Covid-19 pande­mic star­ted was one of the reasons for the strong appeal, the firm noted in a statement.

The fund, which sealed its first deal earlier this month, with the acqui­si­tion of Danish soft­ware busi­ness Siteim­prove for €500m, focu­ses on mid-market compa­nies prima­rily based in Europe. Its main targe­ted sectors are health­care, tech­no­logy and payments, finan­cial services, indus­trial and busi­ness services.

Apart from the Euro­pean focus, the stra­tegy has a mandate for global invest­ment in health­care as in the previous fund and an emer­ging smal­ler global mandate also for tech­no­logy and payments businesses.

“The econo­mic impact of the Covid-19 pande­mic will conti­nue to be felt for some time and the most successful fund mana­gers will be those who respond well to emer­ging trends and market dyna­mics to leverage new oppor­tu­ni­ties,” Kris­toffer Melin­der, the firm’s mana­ging part­ner, added.

Since its incep­tion in 1989, Nordic Capi­tal has inves­ted more than €15bn in more than 110 invest­ments, accor­ding to a statement.

Source: Private Equity News