Andera closes sponsorless mezz fund at €500m

Andera Partners has closed its fourth mezzanine fund at more than its €500 million hard cap.

The ActoMezz IV vehicle will adopt the same strategy as its predecessor funds and invest in sponsorless transactions, primarily in France.

The fund exceeded its initial €450 million target and is 60 percent larger than its predecessor, which closed above its hard-cap in July 2017 with €315 million. ActoMezz III investors have supported the new strategy with re-ups of more than 110 percent and an additional 10 institutional investors, both from France and internationally.

Typical investments will be between €5 million and €70 million and will enable company management teams to retake control of their companies through mezzanine loans. It will mainly target French small and mid-caps but can consider investments in other countries, particularly in the Benelux region, Italy and Spain.

The ActoMezz strategy has raised more than €1 billion over the past six years. Andera Partners now has more than €2.5 billion in assets under management across life sciences, growth capital and sponsorless mezzanine.

Stéphane Bergez, co-manager of Andera Partners and managing partner of ActoMezz, said: “This fundraising, which comes less than three years after the closing of ActoMezz III, achieved its initial objective of €450 million in just 16 weeks before going on to comfortably exceed it, despite the lockdown.”