Strong support for oil and gas

HitecVision has received commitments of US$800m for its new fund HitecVision V, exceeding the original US$600m target. Following strong support from existing investors and significant interest from new international investors the fund was heavily oversubscribed.

The closing is reached only three months after the official launch of the international fundraising in November 2007.

The fund has attracted a well diversified investor base comprising world class European and US pension funds, insurance companies, fund-of-funds, endowments, foundations and families, and other financial institutions. In addition to the commitments from institutional investors, the HitecVision team and associated entities have committed a significant contribution to the fund.

The fund will continue its successful strategy for control buyout and growth capital investments in the oil and gas industry that HitecVision’s team has implemented throughout the firm’s history, combining extensive operational experience from the petroleum sector with strong transactional and financial competence.

Including the new fund HitecVision manages three private equity funds with a total committed capital base of over US$1.2bn.

Ole Ertvaag, CEO and founding partner of HitecVision, said: “We are extremely pleased with the strong support we have received from our long-standing investor base and to welcome this high caliber group of new international investors to the fund. The fact that we have been able to achieve this in such a short space of time, allowing our investment team to conduct business as usual, has been very gratifying.”

The fund is expected to make eight to ten platform investments in Europe and North America within the next five years, with equity investments ranging from US$30m to US$150m. HitecVision targets high-growth companies with revenues between US$50m and US$300m, and will partner alongside management teams who are motivated to aggressively grow their oil service or E&P businesses, both organically and through acquisitions.

MVision Private Equity Advisers acted as global placing agent and Bugge, Arentz-Hansen & Rasmussen (BA-HR) was legal counsel to HitecVision V.