AnaCap vehicle to target financial services firms
EUROPEAN private equity firm AnaCap has bucked the dim fundraising environment by gathering €575m (£496m) for a fund that will aim to snap up vulnerable UK financial services firms.
The group, whose heavyweight investors include Goldman Sachs, Allianz and Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, said the fund is twice the size of its other vehicle, which recently bought UK leisure and property lender Ruffler Bank.
Director at the London-based firm Amber Hilkene said: “We are in an excellent position to capitalise on the wide range of opportunities resulting from the turbulence of the last two years.”
The new fund will continue with AnaCap’s strategy of buying controlling stakes in mid-sized financial services companies across Europe and will seek to expand the businesses it buys out where beneficial, she said.
Private equity firms have struggled to raise capital of late as debt has become more costly and less available.