Siparex launches managed funds

Siparex Ventures has announced the creation of four funds for customers of large French financial institutions.

Siparex Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Siparex Group, is to launch four so-called innovation funds aimed at investors in four of France’s leading financial institutions.

The funds, with a total value of E53m, are being made available to personal customers of Crédit Agricole Asset Management, SanPaolo IMI, Oddo Asset Management and Financière Meeschaert.

The initiative follows on from Siparex’s 1999 FCPI innovation fund, which it managed for ING/Ferri, the stock brokerage arm of the ING Group.

FCPI innovation funds invest alongside the Siparex Ventures I Fund, which allows it to make additional investment without additional costs. Siparex currently has E212m under management in VC investments

Meanwhile, 3i and Jean-Louis Chollet have acquired Siparex SPF II’s equity interest in Lamy Chollet, the French real estate management company. The value of the stake acquired was not disclosed.

Siparex, via its second private equity fund, invested E3.4m in the LBO at Lamy in 1997 and in exiting has generated an IRR of 32.5 per cent and a multiple of three on its investment. The investment was undertaken alongside Royal Bank of Scotland and SPEF, following Lamy Chollet’s spin-off from Générale des Eaux.

Founded in 1977, Siparex was France’s first independent private equity investor. Investing in expansion capital and LBO financing, Siparex currently has E338m under management through its SPF I, II and III funds.