Andera Partners sets up a partnership with Hans Van de Velde to expand its activities in Belgium
Paris – October 14th 2019,
Andera Partners, a leading investment company based in Paris, is pleased to announce the appointment of Hans Van de Velde as Senior Advisor – Belgium. In this new position, Hans will generate new investment opportunities and drive subsequent value creation in Belgium alongside WINCH Capital and CABESTAN Capital, two of the teams with Andera Partners who have an international investment mandate.
Hans was previously a Partner at AAC Capital, specialising in mid-market buyouts in Belgium with a focus on growth acceleration. He brings a wealth of experience in origination, marketing, deal execution, and has worked across a broad spectrum of businesses in various sectors. Prior to this, he also held roles at Deloitte as a Partner in the CF Advisory practice and in banking at ABN AMRO Bank.
Hans holds a MSc in Business Engineering from the University of Leuven in Belgium.
With this new set-up, Andera emphasizes its strong commitment to invest in the Belgian market with many exciting opportunities in a broad range of deal sizes, both minority and majority investments. Hans will be based in Antwerp and cover the entire Belgian market.
The mid-cap franchise Winch Capital is present in the French market for 20 years under the leadership of five managing partners who carried out over 80 investments since the creation of Winch Capital. The team is currently investing its fourth fund of €445 million mainly in France, with a secondary mandate to allocate funds to neighbouring countries such as Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain where certain business owners, funds or intermediaries have identified Winch Capital as a partner of choice to support executives-shareholders of growing SMEs / mid-cap companies (€30 million to €300 million in turnover) to enable them to scale up quickly. Among recent Belgian investments of the team, we can mention Infra Group, Belgium’s major multi-disciplinary network infrastructure and service provider, as well as Minafin, a global fine chemicals developer and manufacturer.
The small-cap franchise Cabestan Capital is a key player in influencing the growth and structuring of SMEs. The team of 4 managing partners has provided support to over 50 companies since its creation in 2008. The €170 million of the Cabestan Capital 2 fund focuses on SMEs with turnover from €10m to €100m with a will to double their size. With a strong focus on the French market, the team also invests on cross-border markets or help domestic companies to develop their international presence. Current portfolio investments in the Belgian region includes engineered fabrics specialist Pennel & Flippo as well as printed circuit board manufacturer ACB.
Thus, through Winch Capital and Cabestan Capital, Andera Partners offers a €5m to €50m range of equity investment capacity along with a strong commitment in shared values and support to sustainable business growth.
“Hans insight and local knowledge will be invaluable for Andera Partners as we continue to grow our presence in the Belgian markets. We are delighted to welcome him on board” say Antoine Le Bourgeois and Romain Ohayon, respectively managing partners in the Winch Capital and the Cabestan Capital teams of Andera Partners.