Equita closes second fund at €237m

Italian alternatives manager Equita has closed its second private debt fund at its hard-cap of €237 million following the addition of a new LP.

Equita Private Debt II added Generali’s Fenice 190 Fund as a new LP, which joins Fondo Italiano d’Investimento, the European Investment Fund, ENPAM and Inarcassa.

The fund began raising after its predecessor fund was fully invested in late 2019 and had secured €131.5 million by March 2021.

EPD II has expanded its geographical reach compared with its predecessor, which was solely focused on Italy, with the ability to make select investments worth up to 20 percent of the vehicle’s capital in the DACH region. It will continue to focus on the lower mid-market.

Deployment has picked up in 2022, according to Paolo Pendenza, head of private debt at Equita, with approximately €118 million invested so far and the firm expects to hit €140 million before the end of the year.

“We hope to make a couple of investments in the DACH region from EPD II, most likely as co-investors,” Pendenza told PDI. “If our work in DACH proves successful then we will look at opening an office in Munich.”

The firm already has plans for a third vehicle which it hopes to begin raising in 2023 and will also examine investing in Spanish private debt. It will look to raise more capital from Italian investors, particularly pension funds and insurance companies, as well as securing repeat investments from its current LP base.

As a result of its larger size, EPD II will see a minimum ticket size of €10 million but most deals will be €15 million or more, compared with tickets of between €5 million and €15 million in EPD I.