EQT Partners mulls a local presence in Italy, EQT’s founder and chairman Conni Jonsson said to milanofinanza.it in a meeting it had in Milan a few days ago. Mr. Jonsson was accompanied by it Italian advisor Giampaolo Murzi, who supports EQT in the scounting of investment opportunities in Italy together with Massimo Rossi who is a member of the investment committee of EQT funds.
EQT is a Sweden private equity operator sponsored by the Wallenberg family, one of the richest and powerful families of Sweden entrepreneurs having interests ranging from Saab to Ericcson, from Electrolux to ABB. The Wallenberg family owns a 20% in EQT management company and is one of the most important investors in EQT’s managed funds.
At the moment EQT Partners is investing its EQT VII fund which raised 7 billion euros about six months ago. EQT is also active in the infrastructure, credit and venture capital sectors.
EQT has an industrial and medium-long term approach to investments and counts on a strong network of contacts among the major industrial familiies in the world which is a strong asset both on the fundraising side and the investment side.
EQT has a strong expertise in the healthcare and medtech sectors and that’s why it bought Italy’s Limacorporate last December (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
“At the moment we do not have an office in Italy but it will happen in the future. Italy is rich in investing opportunities”, Mr. Jonsson said, adding that ” Limacorporate is our first investment in italy but we had been following its development in the last five years. Actually we trid to buy it before. Fortunately this time we had success and now we will be able to support it in its further international growth and m&a stategy”.
EQT is open to investments in other sectors too. For example the company just launched a tender offer of Swiss tour operator Kuoni while EQT infrastrucutre fuind just sold to Chinese Beijing Enterprise its German portfolio company specialized in waste treatment EEW. “That was a 1,4 billion euros deal, the biggest acquisition made by a Chinese company in Germany ever , Mr. Jonsson said.
ià il 30% del nuovo fondo EQT VII è stato impegnato, mentre in Germania il nostro fondo infrastrutture ha appena ceduto EEW, specializzata nel trattamento dei rifiuti, alla cinese , per 1,4 miliardi di euro. Si tratta del deal più grande mai concluso in Germania da un acquirente cinese (si veda altro articolo di BeBeez)“.
“After Limacorporate and Kuoni acquisitions, EQT VII will be 30% invested already”, EQT’s chairman added and also said that “EQT launched its first venture capital fund some months ago which is going to announce its first closing quite soon, In the meantime we already made four investments, of which two in Germany and two in the Nordic Region. This fund is focused on North Europe but we are ready to invest  in othe prats of Europe if theree are opportunites so in italy too”.
