Advent International has completed fundraising for Advent International GPE IX LP at its hard cap of $17.5 billion. The new fund was raised in only six months and exceeded its original target of $16 billion. Advent’s earlier fund, GPE VIII, closed at its hard cap of $13 billion in March 2016.
GPE IX saw strong demand from Advent’s existing investors with more than 90% of the new fund’s commitments coming from limited partners in prior Advent funds.
“We appreciate the continued support from our diverse base of institutional investors and are delighted to welcome select new investors to the GPE program,” said Johanna Barr, managing director and global co-head of limited partner services at Advent in London.
The new fund, like its predecessors, will invest in buyout, corporate carve-out, public-to-private and growth equity transactions primarily in Europe and North America and selectively in other regions such as Asia and Latin America. Sectors of interest continue to include business and financial services; healthcare; industrial; retail, consumer and leisure; and technology, media and telecom.
Advent’s commitment to the technology sector was demonstrated this past February when it opened an office in the San Francisco Bay Area and hired Bryan Taylor as a managing partner to lead its technology investment team. Mr. Taylor is a former co-head of TPG Capital’s technology group, where he jointly led its 20-person team that invested in software, data analytics and technology services. He left TPG Capital in October 2017.
“We are pleased with the strong support GPE IX received from both existing and new investors,” said David Mussafer, chairman and managing partner at Advent in Boston. “We believe that our success is due to our long-established sector focus, global footprint, private partnership model, and the significant operational resources we apply to our investments.”
Advent has 14 offices in 12 countries and employs 195 investment and operating professionals across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. “Advent’s large, globally integrated team gives us a powerful advantage in identifying and executing attractive investment opportunities around the world,” said James Brocklebank, a managing partner at Advent in London. “We are particularly well-positioned to pursue complex situations, such as corporate carve-outs, where we can apply our sector and operating expertise to unlock value in these dynamic businesses.” Since 2005, portfolio companies that Advent has owned for at least a year have increased revenue and EBITDA on average by 14% and 15% annually during its investment.
Beginning in 1990, Advent’s family of GPE funds has invested in 258 private equity transactions spanning 31 countries and has realized liquidity events on 213 of those investments. In addition to the GPE program, Advent is currently investing its $2.1 billion sixth private equity fund (raised in 2015) focused on buyouts and growth equity investments in Latin America.
“The positive response to GPE IX demonstrates investor confidence in our team, strategy and approach,” said Robert Weaver, a managing director and global co-head of limited partner services at Advent in New York. “We will strive to uphold their trust by remaining focused on business transformation and earnings growth across our portfolio.”
Advent was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Boston (www.adventinternational.com).
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | June 6, 2019