SHS launches sixth fund — € 220 million already in first closing

Tübin­gen — SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment has recei­ved capi­tal commit­ments of over EUR 220 million for its now sixth fund at first closing. Faster than expec­ted, the Tübin­­gen-based health­care inves­tor has thus alre­ady excee­ded its target of 200 million euros at the first closing of the subscrip­tion. The sixth gene­ra­tion of SHS funds also targets majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments in the health­care indus­try. 12–15 enga­ge­ments are plan­ned. Inves­tors can still parti­ci­pate in SHS VI until the “final closing”.

As part of the place­ment of the sixth gene­ra­tion of funds, the inves­tor base was further inter­na­tio­na­li­zed. More than half of the SHS VI inves­tors have alre­ady inves­ted in prede­ces­sor funds, and some of them have signi­fi­cantly increased their subscrip­tion to the new gene­ra­tion of funds. SHS attri­bu­tes the strong demand to its unique selling propo­si­tion as a sector specia­list and the successful tran­sac­tions of the last fund generations.

“We would like to thank our inves­tors for their trust,” conti­nues Huber­tus Leon­hardt (photo © SHS), the SHS part­ner and mana­ging direc­tor respon­si­ble for fund­rai­sing. “With our sixth gene­ra­tion of funds, we are once again provi­ding access to private equity in the growing health­care market. In addi­tion to fund perfor­mance, our sector exper­tise and access to tran­sac­tions are key factors for our inves­tors. In addi­tion, our ESG and inves­tor rela­ti­ons exper­tise, as well as our range of co-inves­t­­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, are also rele­vant to many of our clients. We are very plea­sed that with fund gene­ra­tion six we have been able to further inter­na­tio­na­lize our inves­tor base and expand it to include very pres­ti­gious addresses.”

The more than 60 inves­tors in the SHS VI Fund come from the fund of funds, insu­rance compa­nies, pension funds, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices, banks, health­care groups, church inves­tors and entre­pre­neurs. The largest inves­tors include, for exam­ple, the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund, the Scan­di­na­vian foun­da­tion Reald­ania, the Swiss Hels­ana Healt­hIn­vest, the Baden-Würt­­te­m­­berg-based L‑Bank and major family offices. Further­more, the SHS invest­ment team itself has inves­ted significantly.

Focus on growth finan­cing and corpo­rate succession

“We see in our deal flow a variety of fast-growing health­care compa­nies, both young and estab­lished, that are candi­da­tes for invest­ment by the new fund. Stric­ter regu­la­tion and a high need for inno­va­tion and inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion are leading to incre­asing capi­tal requi­re­ments in the indus­try. For other compa­nies, it is a matter of a successful hando­ver to the next gene­ra­tion. Here too, as an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner, we can provide compa­nies with targe­ted and compe­tent support, both with mino­rity and majo­rity share­hol­dings,” says Uwe Stein­ba­cher, Mana­ging Part­ner at SHS.

The fund focu­ses on corpo­rate tran­sac­tions of up to EUR 250 million. The fund can refi­nance the corre­spon­ding equity tran­ches with up to EUR 50 million from its own resour­ces. In case of higher equity requi­re­ments, SHS increa­ses the volu­mes by co-inves­t­­ments of inves­tors inves­ted in the fund or syndi­ca­tes with friendly private equity houses. Expan­sion and inno­va­tion finan­cing, succes­sion situa­tions and share­hol­der chan­ges repre­sent the focus of the invest­ments sought. Majo­rity and mino­rity share­hol­dings are possible.

About SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH

“SHS, an indus­try inves­tor, is a private equity firm foun­ded in 1993 that makes invest­ments in health­care compa­nies in Europe. The focus of invest­ments is on expan­sion finan­cing, share­hol­der chan­ges and succes­sion situa­tions. “Buil­ding Euro­pean Health­care Cham­pi­ons” is the invest­ment philo­so­phy accor­ding to which SHS finan­ces and deve­lops port­fo­lio compa­nies. The Tübin­­gen-based inves­tor is taking both mino­rity and majo­rity stakes. SHS funds’ natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors include pension funds, funds of funds, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices, stra­te­gic inves­tors, entre­pre­neurs and the SHS manage­ment team. The equity invest­ment of the AIFM-regis­­te­red company is up to EUR 50 million. Volu­mes beyond this can be imple­men­ted with a network of co-inves­­tors. When making invest­ment decis­i­ons, SHS places strong empha­sis on conside­ring ESG aspects and is ther­e­fore commit­ted to the UN PRI guide­lines. SHS is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, laun­ched in 2022, with a volume of more than EUR 200 million. www.shs-capital.eu