HgCapital

HgCapital

Type	Private limited company
Industry	Private equity
Predecessor	Mercury Private Equity
Founded	2000
Founders	Partnership
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom and Munich, Germany
Products	Private equity funds, Leveraged buyout
Total assets	$8.7 billion USD[1]
Number of employees	> 100
Website	www.hgcapital.com

HgCapital is a private equity firm with a deep sector focus primarily targeting middle-market buyouts with enterprise values of between £50 million and £500 million across the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT), services, and industrials sectors, lower mid-market buyouts in the TMT sector between £20 million and £80 million and renewable energy infrastructure projects using proven technologies. This market offers a high volume of companies with proven financial performance and defensible market positions.

With over 100 employees in two investment offices in London and Munich, HgCapital has assets under management of £5.2 billion, serving over 100 highly regarded institutional investors, including private and public pension funds, endowments, insurance companies and fund of funds.^[2]

HgCapital began life as Mercury Private Equity, the private equity arm of Mercury Asset Management plc, a long-established UK-based asset management firm. Mercury Asset Management was acquired by Merrill Lynch in 1997. In December 2000, the executives of Mercury Private Equity negotiated independence from Merrill Lynch, and HgCapital was created as a fully independent firm, wholly owned by its partners and employees. HgCapital Trust plc, a London listed investment company, http://www.hgcapitaltrust.com/, is the largest client of HgCapital.

Investment strategy

HgCapital invests across four sectors: TMT, services, industrialsand renewable Energy (separately, via a dedicated fund). It is HgCapital's belief that a deep sector focus makes them better able to select the most attractive investment opportunities and to be the most qualified investor to support the management of those companies. The Company has a long-standing investment in establishing and maintaining deep sector expertise which is a key differentiator in the European Private Equity environment.

While the investment approach is sector-driven, HgCapital primarily focuses its buyout investments in the UK, Germany and the Nordic Region, as well as selectively across the rest of Western Europe. However, a sector focus precedes geography, and therefore investments may be made in other geographies, in sub-sectors where HgCapital has previously made repeated investments.

HgCapital's large, dedicated sector teams operate across Europe and focus on specific sub-sectors - identifying and then developing expertise in specific investment ‘Themes’. Thematic investing represents the identification, through in-house research, of sub-sectors where various industry and macro factors combine to support attractive long-term growth across various European countries. By identifying and focusing on Themes, the sector teams are able to directly target opportunities and to invest repeatedly within a theme over multiple funds and cycles.

This Thematic focus, and the potential for repeated investment, allows HgCapital to accumulate knowledge, to the benefit not only of the portfolio companies and but also ultimately to the investors in HgCapital funds, by sharing best practices across similar investments and improving returns in a virtuous cycle of improvement. An example of an investment Theme is the SME regulatory software space where the HgCapital TMT team has now been investing since 2002.

Current investments

HgCapital Funds' portfolio (2014)^[3]

References

External links

• Official website
• Company overview on Businessweek
• HgCapital Trust plc website|http://www.hgcapitaltrust.com/

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