One of Lithuania’s largest asset management companies, INVL Asset Management, has held a final close of INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund, the largest private equity investment fund for the Baltic region, at a total of EUR165 million.
One of Lithuania’s largest asset management companies, INVL Asset Management, has held a final close of INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund, the largest private equity investment fund for the Baltic region, at a total of EUR165 million.
The fund will acquire a diversified portfolio of Baltic Sea-based companies, targeting deals with a ticket size of EUR10 million to EUR30 million, that show high growth potential and the ability to compete on a global basis. The fund will also offer co-investment opportunities in case of larger transactions.
The fund is sector agnostic, and will focus on growth capital, buyout, and “buy and build” investments, mainly in the Baltics, and will target a total number of 8-12 investments. The focus will be on acquiring Baltics based companies with a view of expansion via organic growth and buy-and-build strategy to neighbouring regions building best in class companies – bringing them from being local to regional, according to INVL Asset Management.
“Our mandate covers the entire European Union however, therefore it cannot be ruled out that we will have investments outside the region not only as add-ons but as well as platform companies. We are actively working on a number of transactions with promising growth prospects and analysing opportunities that comply with the fund’s strategy on an on-going basis,” said Deimantė Korsakaitė, executive partner of INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund.
Since its first close, INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund has invested in two companies within the healthcare and civil engineering sectors, respectively.
“Our main priority and focus now will be the deployment of capital already raised over the next 2-3 years, the development of sustainable portfolio companies, the delivery of strong returns for our investor base and coming back to the market with Fund II in due course,” said Korsakaitė.
“We focus on companies that possess high growth potential, where we see room for value creation, companies that have ability to consolidate the market, become leaders in the region and compete on a truly global basis,” he added.
According to Korsakaitė, a large majority of their investors have already confirmed an interest in co-investing with the fund that will allow the management team to consider equity tickets of up to EUR100 million.
INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund’s investors include the EIF (European Investment Fund), institutional and corporate investors, as well as high net worth individuals.
“We very much value the vote of confidence and trust given to us during this process that has resulted in closing the largest private equity fund in the Baltic region, having the support of the European Investment Fund and the most experienced Baltic institutional, corporate investors and high net-worth individuals who have good knowledge of the Baltics market and opportunities that it provides, said Darius Šulnis, the managing partner of INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund.
He said INVL is actively working on a number of new investments that will allow the firm “to leverage on our ability to execute complex deals with promising growth prospects.”
“We took the decision not to extend the placement of the Fund for over one year from its launch date given that the amount raised is sufficient to implement our investment strategy and deliver strong returns for our investors. We are actively working on a number of new investments that will ultimately allow us to leverage on our ability to execute complex deals with promising growth prospects,” said Šulnis.
According to Šulnis, INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund will seek to repeat the trajectory of Invalda INVL, which recorded a 27 per cent gross IRR and 2.4x CoC on average in comparable transactions.
