Italy’s private equity firm 21 Partners teams up with Aberdeen Standard Investments to launch a joint private equity fund targeting one billion euros fundraising. The new fund will be managed by a 50-50 joint venture between the two firms, named 21 Aberdeen Standard Investments Limited with headquarters in London and an initial management team of 6 professionals (see here the press release).
The new fund will target active non-controlling interests with a focus on providing patient capital for the long term. The fund aims to support and facilitate growth in companies without owners ceding majority stakes in their business. The fund will also target opportunistic transactions or special opportunities which are time sensitive and with a shorter term investment horizon. The Board of the JV will be led by 21 Partners’ managing partner Alessandro Benetton.
Founded in 1992 by Mr. Benetton himself, 21 Partners spa is a European group investing in SMEs in italy, France, Switzerland and Poland. In italy the group is active through 21 Investimenti sgr, with offices in Treviso and Milan, and now operates through its third fund which in February 2016 raised 343 million euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In Poland the group is instead active with 21 Concordia with headquarter in Warsaw and operates throught its first fund which raised 100 million euros in September 2015  (see here a previous post by BeBeez), while in France the group is active with 21 Centrale Partners, based in Paris, which is now investing its fifth fund, launched in 2015. The fund announced its first closing at 200 million euros a few days ago on a 300 million euros target (down from initial 400 millions target, which eas seen just above the 381 mln euros raised by Fund IV, see here Les Echo).
21 Investimenti is starting a sale auction for Nadella, an Italian leader in the production of linear guides and components for mechanical industry that the fund acquired in 2014 from Mid Industry Capital (see here a previous post by BeBeez). As for Mergermarket, Rw Baird and Ethica Corporate Finance have been named by 21 Investimenti as financial advisors for the deal, while among potential buyers are said to be Equistone and Icg private equity firms as well as some industrial buyers. Nadellahas just acquired Chiavette, a Bologna-based company with about 10 million euros in revenues, which will bring Nadella’s revenues in 2018 over 70 million euros.
As for Aberdeen Standard Investments, this is the long term investment division of Scotland-based investment group Standard Life Aberdeen plc listed at the London Stock Exchange which was born last August 2017 from the merger between Standard Life plc and Aberdeen Asset Management plc. The group has now more than 638 billion euros of assets under management.
