PRINT THIS PAGE

Tech expert and former banker set up specialist European secondary buy-out fund

A technology specialist and former investment banker have set up one of Europe's first dedicated secondary buy-out funds to take advantage of post-TMT bubble opportunities.

Philippe Guglielmetti and Robert Pierce have joined forces to found Keystone Financial Partners and are raising a fund with a target of E85m-E100m.

They will be focusing on buying out technology investments from other venture or angel investors, who are either looking for an exit among their battered portfolio companies or no longer capable of supporting and refinancing investments.

Guglielmetti sold his Integra web-hosting company to Genuity for E125m. Pierce was a managing director at investment bank Robertson Stephens. Neither have a private equity track record but they are confident their experience will enable them to capitalise on an under-served marketplace.

Unlike dedicated private equity secondary funds, KF Alternative Equity Partners will be targeting individual companies rather than entire venture portfolios. The firm will also provide fresh capital for their investees and provide management support.

Lars-Christian Brask of Brask and Company, the investment bank helping to raise the fund, said the partners had already identified more than 40 prospective investments and considered the European marketplace to be rich with opportunities.

The collapse of public technology and telecom markets has beached many promising start-ups, leaving them starved of cash and of only marginal interest to tired investors. Some established venture firms, like the Carlyle Group, have begun picking among the wreckage but there has so far been little dedicated activity.

A recent piece of research produced by Brask & Company predicted a substantial increase in liquidity between the different stages of the venture industry in Europe, mitigating the effects of unaccommodating exit routes. It said the emergence of stage specialists would support a more sustainable expansion in the European private equity industry.

Copyright © 2002 AltAssets