Becoming independent, rebranding, fundraising, investments, reinvestments, disposals and internal structuring are all major stages in a management company’s life, and Andera Partners’ staff have successfully completed all of them in barely 12 months. This scale-up confirms Andera Partners’ benchmark status for investment in unlisted SMEs in France and Europe as well as in the global biotechnologies and medical technologies financing market.
A new era
On 16 March 2018, EdRIP’s employees and shareholders completed the acquisition of the 51% of the management company’s share capital held by the Edmond de Rothschild group. The company has thus become independent at a time when private equity is evolving into a major asset class, its aim being to consolidate its four investment activities and establish itself as a key player both in France and internationally.
This scaling up and shifting of position is also illustrated by its new name, Andera Partners, and its new visual identity. The name begins with a strong And, symbolising the partnership created with investors, business owners and staff, and ends with Era, representing renewal.
While the new entity maintains its partnership structure, introduced in 2016, it has renewed its governance through the election in July 2018 of its Board of Partners’ ten new members and the appointment for two years of a new two-person management team. One of the board’s tasks is to develop and grow Andera Partners’ business, with a target of €5 billion in assets under management by 2025, illustrating the company’s intention to position itself as a player in the consolidation of the European private equity market through external growth and staff recruitment. As well as strengthening its internal structure, as from 2016, by professionalising and internalising its compliance and internal control, development, communication and HR functions, it has appointed a Finance Director through an in-house promotion, as well as an Operations Director, and set up a company-wide ESG unit.
Wholesale renewal of funds
In 2018, Andera Partners finished revamping its funds, which began in 2016 for its €170 million Cabestan Capital 2 small-cap business and in 2017 for its €315 million ActoMezz 3 sponsorless mezzanine business, and has resulted in a doubling in size from that of the previous vehicles.
In February 2018, BioDiscovery announced the completion of its fifth generation fundraising at €345 million ($420 million). Exceeding its initial target of €250 million, it has thus become one of Europe’s largest venture capital funds dedicated to life sciences and medical technologies.
In November 2018, the mid-cap franchise Winch Capital completed its fourth fund’s fundraising at €445 million, exceeding its initial target of €350 million and – by 50% – that of its predecessor Winch Capital 3 (€300 million). Andera Partners is thus developing one of the largest investment vehicles in Europe’s mid-cap and SME growth capital market.
The success of these two rounds, the last of which was completed without the support of the management company’s historical shareholder, reflects the confidence of its historical investor base and the attractiveness of its positioning for new investors, including several foreign investors.
Sustained activity
In 2018, Andera Partners’ various teams deployed nearly €250 million in capital and mezzanine financing, supporting 17 new managers in their companies’ growth projects and reinvesting in 14 existing portfolio companies.
With 13 disposals throughout the year, the teams generated more than €350 million in sale proceeds. Notable exits included Exclusive Group and SFAM (Winch Capital); French mid-caps transformed in a few years into international unicorns, valued at more than €1 billion; A2iA (Cabestan Capital) via its sale to the US listed group Mitek, which created a globally unrivalled centre of excellence in artificial intelligence and machine learning; and ADF (ActoMezz), an industrial engineering and maintenance services major.
The BioDiscovery franchise distinguished itself notably through two Nasdaq IPOs in October 2018: LogicBio Therapeutics (gene therapy for paediatric diseases) and Axonics Modulation Technologies (neurostimulation system for urinary incontinence).
A high-performance, influential platform that meets economic challenges
Andera Partners now has a 62-strong team, including 45 investors, based in France and Italy and managing more than €2.3 billion. It supports the managers of 99 French, European and US companies with total 2018 sales of nearly €5.8 billion and EBITDA of around €630 million. These companies span almost all economic sectors and employ more than 39,000 people.
In addition to its impact on the real economy, Andera Partners is also very active in therapeutic innovation. Its BioDiscovery franchise has enabled the market roll-out of 19 therapeutic products and medical technologies, and currently has several dozen products awaiting validation in areas such as oncology and orphan or cardiovascular diseases, for various therapeutic periods.
In addition to the development and growth of the management company and its investments, Andera Partners is also investing in its societal role with the aim of making finance socially useful. Among the recent initiatives it has announced and introduced are several in-house measures to reduce its carbon footprint and a partnership with H-UP Entrepreneurs, an association that supports disabled business owners in their business start-up and growth projects, due for implementation in early 2019.