Nmas1 inching closer to target

Spanish buyout specialist, Nmas 1 has reached a second close on its second fund, Nmas 1 Private Fund, its first to target international investors. The fund, which has a target of euro200 million has raised euro135 million so far from investors including General Electric, AIG, Axis Capital and two Spanish institutional investors. The team is looking to achieve its final target by the end of the year.

Clifford Chance is advising the firm on the fund and the team at Dinamia has been able to draw on the law firm’s expertise in the adoption of English limited partnerships as well as its understanding of the international fund raising market.

Paz Ambrosy, investor relations manager at Nmas 1, is confident the fund will reach its target by the end of the year or the beginning of next at the latest. The new fund will invest alongside the firm’s first fund, Dinamia, which is the only private equity fund quoted on the Spanish stock exchange. The fund originally raised €120 million from institutional investors and currently has €170 million under management invested in 13 companies. It is 80 per cent invested.

The fund has made no investments so far, as the firm this year has been concentrating on its fund raising efforts and exiting investments. Dinamia recently celebrated an exit from its 1999 investment in Isolux Wat, a former unit of the Corporacion Industrial y Financiera de Banesto and one of Spain’s leading engineering and industrial appliance companies. Dinamia invested around £9.5 million alongside a consortium of investors including Bridgepoint Capital (at the time NatWest Equity Partners), which invested some £10 million in the company for a 31.25 per cent stake. Other investors included Baring, Corpfin, Societe Generale and Credito y Docks.

Dinamia made a return of around €30 million on its investment, generating an IRR of 43 per cent.