Advent International, one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors,  announced that it has completed fundraising for Advent International GPE IX Limited Partnership (“GPE IX” or the “Fund”). The Fund reached its hard cap of $17.5 billion and surpassed the $16 billion target after six months in the market. Advent’s previous global fund, GPE VIII, closed on $13 billion in 2016.

GPE IX will pursue the same proven strategy as Advent’s eight prior Global Private Equity (GPE) funds, investing in buyout, corporate carve-out, public-to-private and growth equity transactions, primarily in Europe and North America and selectively in Asia and Latin America.

Sector specialization has been at the heart of Advent’s approach since its inception, and the Fund will continue to focus on five core industries where the firm has significant experience and knowledge: (1) business and financial services; (2) healthcare; (3) industrial; (4) retail, consumer and leisure; and (5) technology, media and telecom. Advent recently announced plans to deepen its commitment to the technology sector by expanding its technology investment team and opening a new office in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“We are pleased with the strong support GPE IX received from both existing and new investors,” said David Mussafer, a Managing Partner at Advent in Boston. Mr. Mussafer is one of 15 Managing Partners who oversee Advent. “We believe that our success is due to our long-established sector focus, global footprint, private partnership model, and the significant operational resources we apply to our investments.”

“Advent’s large, globally integrated team gives us a powerful advantage in identifying and executing attractive investment opportunities around the world,” said James Brocklebank, a Managing Partner at Advent in London. “We are particularly well-positioned to pursue complex situations, such as corporate carve-outs, where we can apply our sector and operating expertise to unlock value in these dynamic businesses.”
 
Advent has more than 195 investment and portfolio support professionals worldwide. A team of 157 professionals across Europe, North America and Asia will deploy GPE IX. These individuals can leverage the knowledge and experience of 40 professionals from Advent’s Latin American private equity program, as well as a global network of world-class operational resources. This includes over 115 external Operating Partners and Operations Advisors, former senior executives with deep sector and functional expertise.

Through this platform, Advent brings industry best practices, tools and capabilities to help management teams execute value creation plans and accelerate earnings growth. Since 2005, portfolio companies that Advent has owned for at least a year have increased revenue and EBITDA on average by 14% and 15% annually during its investment.

GPE IX saw significant demand from Advent’s existing investors, with more than 90% of the Fund’s commitments coming from limited partners in prior Advent funds.

“We appreciate the continued support from our diverse base of institutional investors and are delighted to welcome select new investors to the GPE program,” said Johanna Barr, Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Limited Partner Services at Advent in London.

“The positive response to GPE IX demonstrates investor confidence in our team, strategy and approach,” said Robert Weaver, Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Limited Partner Services at Advent in New York. “We will strive to uphold their trust by remaining focused on business transformation and earnings growth across our portfolio.”

Advent’s GPE program has successfully executed investments and exits over multiple generations of funds and several economic and private equity cycles. Since 1990, the program has invested in 258 private equity transactions spanning 31 countries and fully or substantially realized 213 of those investments.

Across all of its funds, Advent has invested $44 billion (€36 billion) in more than 345 private equity transactions in 41 countries. The firm’s current portfolio companies generated $50 billion (€44 billion) in annual revenue and employed over 290,000 people as of their latest year end.

Recent IPOs and exits of companies in the GPE program include Ammeraal Beltech, Bojangles’, Cotiviti, Genoa Healthcare, KMD, lululemon athletica (partial exit), Mondo Minerals, MORSCO and Nexi (IPO, partial exit).

Recent GPE investments include Aimbridge Hospitality, BioDuro, Deutsche Fachpflege Gruppe, INNIO (formerly GE Distributed Power), Laird, Manjushree Technopack, Prisma Medios de Pago, Walmart Brazil and Zentiva.

In addition to the GPE program, Advent is currently investing its sixth private equity fund focused on buyouts and growth equity investments throughout Latin America. The 2015-vintage fund, LAPEF VI, is capitalized at $2.1 billion.