Silverfleet smashes target to close second fund at €850m

London-based Silverfleet Capital, which specialises in European mid-market buyouts, has reached a final close on its Silverfleet Capital Partners II fund at €850 million ($927 million; £610 million), above its €700 million target. Marketing began in the second half of last year.

The firm has “shaken hands” on its first investment from its second fund, Silverfleet managing partner Neil MacDougall told Private Equity International. 

“We hope to make our first investment very soon. We affectively trying to paper it over,” MacDougall said.

The fund received commitments from 25 institutional investors. Of these, 55 percent represented returning investors. The firm made a GP commitment of around two percent (€17 million), MacDougall said. 

Insurance groups accounted for 42 percent of the new fund's investors, 29 percent was committed by pension funds, funds-of-funds accounted for 15 percent, nine percent came from sovereign wealth funds and the remainder from family offices.

European investors accounted for 75 percent of investors, US investors 15 percent, with the remaining 10 percent spread elsewhere globally.

“We had a number of investors that would have liked to re-up, but we had moved out of their target space,” MacDougall said. “They wanted to commit to a smaller fund than we were likely to raise.”

According to PEI data, investors in Silverfleet Capital Partners, its first, 2009-vintage, €670 million fund, include AlpInvest Partners, MPC Capital, Prudential Staff Pension Fund, BVT Unternehmensgruppe and ACG Capital.

Silverfleet's first fund closed its investment period in December 2014. There is capital for follow-on investments but not new ones, MacDougall said. 

The fund acquired Danish digital camera manufacture Phase One in February 2014, as previously reported by PEI.

Silverfleet II will pursue the same strategy, deal sizes, geographies and sectors as its first vehicle. “It's continuity,” MacDonald said.

Credit Suisse Asset Management acted as adviser and placement agent on the fund, while Proskauer Rose provided legal, tax and regulatory advice.

Silverfleet focuses on international businesses with an enterprise value of between €75 million and €250 million in four defined sectors: business and financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and retail, and leisure and consumer products. It pursues buy-and-build, roll out or expansion strategies.