With the credit crunch putting a crimp in LBO activity, European buyout shop PAI Partners is settling for significant stakes in publicly traded companies. The French private equity firm has announced plans for a
joint investment fund with Philippe Guez, a former star banker for Deutsche Bank AG. Dubbed Akkadia, the fund will take minority stakes in publicly traded middle-market companies.
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The new vehicle fund does not yet have a fundraising target, but it will be
50% owned by PAI and 50% owned by Guez. Akkadia's strategy will be to
acquire long-term stakes of between 5% and 20% in European companies
valued at between €250 million and €4 billion ($392 million and $6.3 billion). PAI closed its most
recent LBO fund,
PAI Europe V,
with €5.4 billion in May 2008. The firm claimed that the
fund was the largest private equity vehicle ever raised in continental
Europe.
- George White
See Reuters story on Akkadia
See TheDeal.com on PAI's PE fund
