After the first successful closing at €147M reached at the end of October 2013 (read here), and the second closing held on 20th December 2013 at €200,2M (read here), Ambienta SGR, the Milan, Italy-based leading private equity firm in Europe focused on the environmental sector, has held the final close of its second fund, Ambienta II, at its hard cap of €325M (approximately $404M). The fund, which started fundraising in late November 2013 with a target of €300M, has exceed its target by 7.8 per cent with the final closing, that was substantially oversubscribed, and represents the biggest european fund dedicated to environmental protection. The Fund Ambienta II attracted a mix of international investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, funds of funds and family offices from Europe and North America. Backers include the European Investment Fund, Generali, HarbourVest, Hermes, Pantheon, RobecoSAM, Stafford Capital Partners, Unigestion and Zurich Insurance Group, as well as Italian LPs such as CNPADC, Fondazione Enasarco, Intesa Sanpaolo, Fondo Italiano di Investimento, and Poste Vita.
The fund will be managed by Ambienta SGR, independent investment firm founded in 2007 by Nino Tronchetti Provera, Rolando Polli and Mauro Roversi (all three founders of Ambienta), as well as by Stefano Bacci and Rudolf Ohnesorge, - supported by a team of more than 10 professionals. The Fund will invest in 10-15 companies in line with the AMBIENTA strategy, focused on an acquisitive growth strategy with targeted investments on cutting edge SMEs with high growth potential and able to make a positive contribution to optimizing the use of resources and reduction of pollutants (resource efficiency and pollution control). The historical scarcity of natural resources and high population density have allowed a number of European companies to develop great skills in these two areas and Ambienta seeks through a heavely engaged industrial approach to supports businesses in the process of management development and growth in global markets, turning them into international industry champions. Ambienta II will continue Ambienta 's strategy of
generating value for investors through growth rather than financial engineering, working closely with companies to drive business development focusing on international expansion of its portfolio companies. Notably more than 50% of Ambienta I growth portfolio company revenues are generated outside Europe, having more than doubled over Ambienta's holding.
Nino Tronchetti Provera, Founder and Managing Partner of AMBIENTA commented:
generating value for investors through growth rather than financial engineering, working closely with companies to drive business development focusing on international expansion of its portfolio companies. Notably more than 50% of Ambienta I growth portfolio company revenues are generated outside Europe, having more than doubled over Ambienta's holding.
Nino Tronchetti Provera, Founder and Managing Partner of AMBIENTA commented:
"We are pleased to announce the final close of AMBIENTA II and thank the investors, existing and new ones, for their support. The fundraising closed above the initial goal and finished ahead of schedule. This success reflects the appreciation of the investors for both the huge opportunity offered by the trends in the environmental sector, and for the effectiveness of our business strategy. We continue to be focused on finding attractive opportunities across Europe in order to deliver satisfactory returns for our investors.
Rede Partners acted as placement agent for the Fund.
During the fundraising period Ambienta's private equity investment professionals screened several companies, and in June 2014 they closed the first investment of the Fund AMBIENTA II through the acquisition of IP Cleaning SpA, a leading company in the production of machinery and equipment for the professional cleaning sector. The company has a solid and diversified business model, with a portfolio of innovative and highly-efficient products targeting professional customer base worldwide distributed in various application segments. Energy efficiency and resource optimization are key elements in the professional cleaning industry on which AMBIENTA intends to focus expanding the product offering of IP Cleaning through new investments in research and development.
Ambienta SGR is the leading private equity firm in Europe focused on the environmental sector with an experienced investment team, operating out Milan, Munich and London with a combination of highly successful growth private equity investing, industrial and consulting backgrounds. Its inaugural fund Ambienta I, launched in 2008, with committed capital of € 217.5 million, was raised from institutional investors, family offices and the investment team. The company uses a private equity approach to growing environmental businesses, has an extensive expertise to support entrepreneurs, international footprint and global investing network, as well as a broad environmental focus on pollution, energy efficiency, water, waste and recycling. Managing currently two funds with total capital commitments of €541 million, the world largest capital pool for the cleantech space, Ambienta has completed eighteen investments to date (primary investments plus add on), in fields such as energy efficiency, pollution control, recycling and primary resource management.
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