CDC Equity Capital launches second buyout fund

CDC Equity Capital, the leveraged buyout division of CDC Ixis Private Equity, has launched its second private equity fund to date. Following in the footsteps of the group’s first fund, it will invest in large-scale buyouts in the French market.

CDC-Enterprises II has a target of E450m. A first closing was completed in April and a second closing concluded in June 2001 at about E300m. As of November 2001, an additional E60m have been committed to the fund.

Caisse des Dépôts group and CDC IXIS Private Equity have invested E200m. The fund will remain open until the start of 2002.

CDC-Enterprises, the group’s first fund, launched in 1998 with E250m. Since then CDC Equity Capital has completed seven deals, four of which rank among the 10 largest buyout deals in the French market. One was the buyout of Cegelec, formerly Alstom Contracting, the electrical engineering and services division of the Alstom Group, one of continental Europe’s largest industrial MBOs.

A less successful venture was the taking private of Finelist, the UK distributor of car parts, which CDC Equity Capital, Butler Capital Partners and Axa Asset Management Private Equity bought in 1999. Finelist went into receivership in October 2000, leaving a number of creditors with substantial losses.