Eurazeo raises €2.3bn for latest direct lending fund
French alternative asset manager Eurazeo has closed its sixth direct lending fund, raising €2.3bn (£2bn) in capital, surpassing its initial target of €2bn.
The fund raised €900m from retail investors, taking the total scale of the group’s private debt programme to €3.2bn.
More than 70 per cent of the fund’s investors come from outside of France.
The Private Debt VI fund has already invested in more than 50 companies across Europe, across sectors such as business services, healthcare, specialised financial services and information technology.
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The private debt team comprises over 20 investors, providing mainly senior debt funding to European SMEs with valuations of between €30m and €300m.
“The success of this sixth vintage shows the level of confidence that our investors have in our private debt business, in which our cautious and selective strategy is particularly appropriate in the current environment,” said managing partners François Lacoste and Eric Gallerne.
“It is also an acknowledgment of the quality of our teams who, across our four European offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt and Madrid, support the development of many high-growth-potential mid-cap companies in Europe.”
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