Advent closes second office in a week

A week after announcing it will shut its office in Turkey, Advent International has said it will be closing its Italian office too. 

Advent, which doesn’t have any portfolio companies in Italy, said sluggish deal flow was the reason for leaving the country. “In recent years, new deal activity in the market has been particularly slow. With the continued softness in the investment environment and without any active portfolio companies to oversee, we believe that now is the ideal time to consider our longer-term operating model in the country,” it said in a statement. 

At press time, it was unclear how many staff members were based in the Milan office and whether they would move to one of Advent’s remaining European offices, which are located in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid.   

Advent opened its Milan office in 1991. Since then, the firm has invested in nine companies, which have all been exited.

Despite leaving the country, Advent remains interested in the Italian market, the firm claimed. “We will continue to build relationships in Italy with prospective management teams, owners and founders of businesses, and the country will be a part of our pan-European sector strategies as we seek to identify attractive investment opportunities in the future,” the firm said, adding that it will cover the market from its other European offices. 

Last week Advent said it would close its office in Istanbul, which it opened in 2010. While Turkey “continues to have great potential … we prefer to cover the market through our Europe-wide sector-focused approach rather than with a dedicated office,” the firm said in a statement. With the closure of its Milan and Istanbul office, Advent has now only one office in Southern Europe. 

Advent is not the only firm to have reduced its presence in the region recently. Last week Apax Partners said it cut 10 percent of its workforce. It shut its Milan office at the end of last year and is currently closing its Barcelona office. 

Advent is currently investing its Advent International GPE VII, which reached it €8.5 billion hard-cap in November 2012.