Epiris raises £821m for first fund and targets UK-based businesses
Private equity firm Epiris has closed its first fund, raising £821m, and said it wanted to add to its acquisitions of auction house Bonhams and Time Inc's UK operations.
The London-based group said the fund's strategy was to target UK-headquartered businesses with an enterprise value of between £75m and £500m – deploying up to £150m of equity in each investment.
The fund has already made four acquisitions, which also includes banknote paper manufacturer Portals and the UK's largest country club operator The Club Company.
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The £821m worth of capital commitments makes it one of the largest European first-time funds raised in the past decade.
Last month it acquired the auction house Bonhams, which had been up for sale since at least 2014.
It has also bought the UK arm of Time Inc, which includes magazines, such as NME, Country Life, Cycling Weekly and Horse & Hound, from its parent company Meredith Corporation.
Alex Fortescue, managing partner at Epiris, said: “We are delighted with the support investors have shown for the fund and are very proud that we were able to raise such a sizeable fund to invest in exciting UK-headquartered investments.
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“With four acquisitions under our belt and a full pipeline of new opportunities, the team is looking forward to making more on-strategy investments and enacting transformational change within our portfolio.”