London — IK Invest­ment Part­ners (“IK”), a leading pan-Euro­­pean private equity firm, today announ­ced the closing of its IK Small Cap II Fund (“IK Small Cap II” or “the Fund”) at the hard cap of €550 million set out in the Fund’s Artic­les of Asso­cia­tion. The fund was signi­fi­cantly over­sub­scri­bed and was placed exclu­si­vely with exis­ting inves­tors of IK.

The new fund is twice the size of its prede­ces­sor, which was IK’s first small cap fund closed in March 2016 at a hard cap of 277 million euros. The IK Small Cap I Fund has inves­ted in 12 compa­nies, of which three invest­ments have been successfully sold to date.

Like its prede­ces­sor fund, IK Small Cap II will focus on growth compa­nies in the core markets of Bene­lux, DACH, France and the Scan­di­na­vian count­ries. The invest­ments are carried out by a dedi­ca­ted small cap team with offices in Amster­dam, Hamburg, Paris and Stockholm.

Chris­to­pher Masek (photo), CEO of IK Invest­ment Part­ners, said, “Compa­nies, such as those that fall within the invest­ment focus of IK Small Cap II, are, we believe, the drivers of econo­mic growth and job crea­tion in Europe. The contin­ued confi­dence and support of our inves­tors unders­cores the high importance of inves­t­ing in this market segment, enab­ling compa­nies to enter their next phase of growth.”

Kris­tian Carls­son Kemp­pi­nen, Part­ner and respon­si­ble for the IK Small Cap Funds at IK Invest­ment Part­ners, added: “In 2017, we have seen an unpre­ce­den­ted abun­dance of invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, with very crea­tive and ambi­tious compa­nies. We look forward to iden­ti­fy­ing and helping these future indus­try leaders reach their full potential.”

Nils Pohl­mann, Part­ner at IK Invest­ment Part­ners, said: “We are encou­ra­ged by the large number of excel­lent compa­nies in the DACH region and the resul­ting invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. IK’s value crea­tion approach combi­nes buy-and-build stra­te­gies and opera­tio­nal excel­lence, making it ideally aligned with high-growth natio­nal and global cham­pi­ons of the German Mittelstand.”

Gregor Korte, Part­ner at IK Invest­ment Part­ners, added: “Our far-reaching Euro­pean plat­form, combi­ned with our exten­sive local market know­ledge, offers unique growth oppor­tu­ni­ties to ambi­tious German small cap compa­nies. We look forward to part­ne­ring further with talen­ted entre­pre­neurs in the DACH region and helping them grow their businesses.”

Kirk­land & Ellis was manda­ted to provide legal advice to the IK Small Cap II Fund.

About IK Invest­ment Partners
is a Euro­pean private equity firm with an invest­ment focus on the Nordic count­ries, the DACH region and France/Benelux. Since 1989, IK has laun­ched funds with a cumu­la­tive equity volume of more than 9.5 billion euros and inves­ted in more than 115 Euro­pean compa­nies through the funds. The IK funds invest toge­ther with the respec­tive manage­ment and their inves­tors in medium-sized compa­nies with signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial in order to create successful, well-posi­­tio­­ned compa­nies with excel­lent pros­pects for the future.