Vista Investors, a private equity investor operating from London and Milan, and Reed Capital, a privately held industrial holding company investing in private equity operating from Paris, are merging to form EIM Capital.
EIM Capital (Equity In Motion) will bring together Reed Capital’s reputation for operational management of acquired companies and Vista Investors’ international buyout and buy-and-build expertise. The founders have collaborated over the years on a number of deals and have between them forty years’ experience in private equity transactions and exits.
Luigi Chiaraviglio is the Managing Director of Vista Investors, having previously worked at private equity firms in America and Europe. He specialises in international buy-outs and has worked across transactions ranging from 10 million enterprise value to 1 billion enterprise value in Europe, US and Asia, including Evoca Group, Polynt Reichhold, AEB Group, B&B Italia.
Renaud Delaage founded Reed Capital in Paris after 15 years of investing across Europe and overseas with family offices. He was a Partner at Brinon Investissement, and previously worked for Deloitte & Touche in France and in Gabon. He focuses on the operational improvement of businesses as they mature in deals.
Together, Vista Investors and Reed Capital will invest in, and partner with, lower mid-market businesses across Europe to optimise value over the long-term. While EIM Capital can invest in all industries, the company has a particular focus on industrials, chemicals and discreet consumer goods and services.
It already has a portfolio of companies which includes infrastructure providers such as piping systems for water management, urban hygiene, road analysis equipment and mechanical rubber and tire goods.
The EIM Capital team includes professionals of diverse language capabilities and will operate in Europe from one office based in Paris; it will be supported by a broad network of professionals and managers, with international backgrounds. These advisors bring a wealth of professional connections from across the whole of Europe.
Renaud Delaage says: “Luigi’s international experience with buy-outs of different sizes is the perfect complement to Reed Capital’s expertise. We’ve worked very successfully together in the past and know this market extremely well. This was the natural next step – to bring our two companies together in an offering that benefits pan-European, lower mid-market companies in need of growth and value strategies and delivers for European investors.”
Luigi Chiaraviglio says: “Joining forces was the obvious way to continue delivering for investors and our portfolio companies, whilst mining our independent networks for the benefit of all parties. The COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent hit on the global economy has left companies with a lack of visibility over what their future will hold. With EIM Capital, we have a clear focus on growing the financial and strategic value of the companies in our portfolio. We deploy significant capital injections into high-potential companies and their management teams to secure processes and optimise systems to ensure future growth. We plan to be the step-change they need, which will in turn deliver for our investors across Europe.”
