Electra closes E1.25bn fund

Electra Partners Europe has closed its second fund on E1.25bn, just over two months after it was officially launched.

Electra European Fund II, like its predecessor, will invest in Western European buyouts of companies that operate in sectors such as support services, healthcare, leisure, financial services and industrial (which includes manufacturing and chemicals). The average investment will be between E50m and E150m, although there is the ability to bridge up to E375m if the need arises.

Nigel McConnell, managing partner of Electra, said: “More than 80% of the money in Fund II is accounted for by investors in the earlier Electra European Fund. We placed a hard-cap of E1.25bn on this second fund to ensure continued investment discipline during a period of possible excess liquidity in equity and debt markets.”

The geographical spread of investors in the fund was split between the US (46% of LPs) and Europe (44%), with the remaining 10% coming from the rest of the world. Almost a third of commitments (31%) come from either pension funds or insurance companies, 24% from endowments of family offices, and the rest are state and fund-of-funds. Reports suggest that among the new investors are Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Scottish Widows and the University of Notre-Dame.

UBS acted as placement agent for the fund raising.