Private Equity Deals & Transactions

Hera Capital targets $20m for Fund II

The Singapore-based firm has already made four investments from the fund, which it plans to close in April next year.

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Singapore-based Hera Capital is targeting a final close on Hera Capital Holdings II in April next year, managing partner Thierry de Panafieu, told Private Equity International.

Hera is raising the fund over a two-year period and is seeking an additional $5 million following its first close on $15 million in April. Its investors are mainly family offices. The firm has about 20 investors who come into every fund, although not necessarily with the same amounts, de Panafieu said in an earlier press interview.

The private equity firm invests between $1 million and $10 million in minority stake transactions involving companies across South East Asia, including firms undertaking cross-border activities.

“Our investment strategy is different in the sense that we focus in the low to mid-market in South East Asia and yet have a very high touch approach,” de Panafieu said.

So far, Hera has made four investments from Fund II, including Sophie Paris, Reworld Media, Bomanbridge and CashCashPinoy, and another four will be made over the next six months, de Panafieu said. He would not disclose the amount invested in each company.

Sophie Paris is a direct selling fashion retailer in Indonesia and the Philippines, in which Hera invested in August 2013. In May 2014, it invested $2.7 million in ReWorld Media, an international media company based in France and Singapore, according to reports. The company listed on the Alternext Paris stock exchange market in June.

Hera also invested in Bomanbridge Media, a Singapore-based TV distribution agency and production company, in November last year, according to reports. At about the same time Hera also invested $2 million into CashCashPinoy, a leading e-commerce player in the Philippines.

Other companies into which Hera has invested include Bel Perfumes, a company based in Thailand which creates and distributes perfumes and other cosmetics, and Crème Simon, founded in 1860, and one of the oldest skincare brands in France.

In mid-October Hera sold ActSocial, a Chinese social media intelligence company, for an undisclosed sum to Linkfluence, a European social media company.