Why did Equity Partners start investing into private equity?
‘Equity Partners was founded in 2001 as a direct investment subsidiary of Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf, a large savings bank in Germany. Following the first positive experiences in the direct investment portfolio our investor was keen to grow his exposure to the asset class. Equity Partners suggested a fund investment strategy to the investor to facilitate the construction of a broader private equity portfolio, not limited to deploying more capital in direct investments in the German small-cap market, where we had been active before. We did not want to move into the very crowded mid-cap segment with our direct investment business, which would have been another option. After starting with an initial investment volume of €100m for direct investments in 2001 we are now managing €700m with approximately €250m invested or committed. Our current allocation for fund investments of €400m shows that we are in the market for the long term.’ What type of investments do you look for on the fund inves
