JZ Capital Partners (JZCP), the London listed private equity fund which invests in US, European and Latin America micro cap companies, deployed a total of USD130.8m across 17 new investments during the six months to the end of August 2012.
JZCP made USD85.7m of new investments across all industry verticals in the US micro-cap portfolio, increasing the size by 41 per cent to USD289m.
Investments in the European Micro Cap Fund (EMF) meanwhile, reached USD81.3m representing 14 per cent of total assets, following EMF’s EUR13.5m investment in Oro Direct – a precious metals trading business in Spain.
JZCP also completes its first USD6.1m co-investment in Latin America in BSM Engenharia, a Brazil based infrastructure service business in conjunction with ACON, a private equity group with significant regional experience.
David Zalaznick, JZCP’s founder and investment adviser, says: “It is very much business as usual at JZCP. Further investment activity in high quality companies and a flow of realisations have complimented another solid performance from our core micro cap portfolio during the period.
“From a strategic perspective, it has also been a busy period for the company as we have announced a number of measures that will benefit all of our shareholders. I would like to thank shareholders for their overwhelming support received for these new strategic initiatives that are now in place. We remain confident that they will set the foundations for the company to continue to generate future profitable growth.
“Our emphasis on maintaining a strong balance sheet together with a healthy pipeline of investments, particularly in the US, leaves us in a strong position as we enter the second half of the year.”
