Equita in market with €200m debt fund

Italian investment bank Equita is on the road with a follow up to its 2016 private debt vehicle.

The Equita Private Debt Fund II is seeking to raise €200 million, double the size of its predecessor fund.

Equita said it has received regulatory approval to market the new fund to Italian and foreign institutional investors. The firm said it is expecting significant reinvestment from investors in its first debt fund and will focus on raising additional capital from pension funds, insurance companies and funds of funds.

The vehicle will adopt the same investment strategy as its predecessor, mainly investing in senior unitranche and subordinated bonds for sponsor-led transactions. Loans will have a maturity of between five and seven years and a bullet repayment structure.

Returns are expected to be in line with those achieved by the first fund, which was fully invested on 11 October this year and is expecting gross returns of 9.5 percent. Equita Private Debt Fund’s final deal was a €7 million senior subordinated bond to finance Aksia Group’s acquisition of Italian dental chain Primo Group. The deal also saw Equita take a €1 million minority equity stake in the holding company.

Paolo Pendenza, head of private debt at Equita Capital, said: “The very positive results achieved by the team put Equita in a privileged position to start raising its second private debt fund. We expect to reach a first closing in the first months of 2020 and complete the fundraising in the following 12 months.”