Hamburg — Asto­rius Capi­tal GmbH successfully closes its third private equity fund of funds Asto­rius Capi­tal PE Fonds III with Euro 49m. As with the other fund programs, the focus is on buyout and growth stra­te­gies in the Euro­pean SME sector.

“With Asto­rius Capi­tal PE Fund III, we have again placed one of the most successful private equity products for semi-profes­­sio­nal inves­tors in Germany in recent years,” said Julien Zornig (photo), Part­ner at Asto­rius Capi­tal. In addi­tion to a very successful approach to direct custo­mers, a number of private bank custo­mers and family offices were won as inves­tors. ACF III will be closed with a total volume of EUR 49 million. This repres­ents the most successful fund­rai­sing in the company’s history to date. “The signi­fi­cant increase in volume and the high propor­tion of repeat subscri­bers, inclu­ding in the alre­ady laun­ched ACF IV, demons­tra­tes the growing confi­dence of our custo­mers in our offe­ring,” Zornig added.

Attrac­tive portfolio
“With the target funds Deut­sche Private Equity III, Nazca IV, Cata­Cap II, Ergon IV and Stir­ling Square IV, we have once again put toge­ther a very attrac­tive port­fo­lio in ACF III,” explai­ned part­ner Thomas Wein­mann. In addi­tion to three coun­try funds, two Pan-Euro­­pean funds were linked. This gives custo­mers access to high-quality Euro­pean medium-sized compa­nies. “The market envi­ron­ment with low inte­rest rates, vola­tile stock markets and high real estate prices is helping. Howe­ver, valua­tions in our market remain at attrac­tive levels, not only rela­tively but objec­tively,” Wein­mann adds.

Advan­ced invest­ment activity
“Over­all, we are very satis­fied with the invest­ment progress for our inves­tors,” states part­ner Georg Rems­ha­gen. Seve­ral compa­nies have alre­ady been included in ACF III, brin­ging the total number of invest­ments in the various Asto­rius fund programs to 50. “In ACF III, there were write-ups on tran­sac­tions after a short time,” which Rems­ha­gen sees as confir­ma­tion of the quality of the mana­gers identified.

Chal­len­ging inves­tor environment
“During the place­ment period of ACF III, many inves­tors such as banks and family offices once again had to make chan­ges due to new regu­la­ti­ons such as MiFID II,” notes Frank Rohwed­der, the part­ner respon­si­ble for struc­tu­ring. “We have contin­ued to be attu­ned to the needs of our direct custo­mers and part­ners, and are constantly opera­ting in line with the latest regu­la­tory requi­re­ments.” In addi­tion to private indi­vi­du­als, smal­ler insti­tu­tio­nal custo­mers and foun­da­ti­ons were again attrac­ted as inves­tors. “The trans­pa­rency crea­ted by Asto­rius and the insti­tu­tio­nal selec­tion process, which we are conti­nuously impro­ving, remains a crucial factor in this,” Rohwed­der emphasizes.