Creation of a new specialised activity, appointment of a Chief Sustainability Officer, launch of the Andera Partners Foundation, closing of two fundraisings and around 30 transactions: 2021 was a very active year for Andera Partners, which is gearing up to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Andera Partners, a leading independent private equity asset management company through its five specialist teams, Andera Life Sciences, Andera Infra, Andera MidCap, Andera Expansion and Andera Acto, had an extremely busy year in 2021 with €534 million in capital deployed, €613 million in sale proceeds received and €632 million in funds raised. The company confirmed its target of reaching €4-5 billion in assets under management by 2025 through organic growth and the recruitment of new industry specialists.
New business team and operations in Germany: Andera Partners continues to grow
In 2021, Andera Partners launched Andera Infra, an SFDR Article 9-compliant impact fund dedicated to infrastructures that offer both financial and ecological performance. The fund raised nearly €100 million within a few months and is targeting €200 million in the short term, confirming the market’s appetite for this investment thesis and the team’s quality. With extensive experience in smart infrastructure impact investing, Guy Auger and Prune des Roches head up the Andera Infra business. The fund focuses on the energy transition sector, in particular clean energy production and storage, active mobility solutions and green data centres. This new activity confirms Andera Partners’ unique partnership model and its ambition to play a leading role in the climate transition.
Andera also strengthened its presence in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) by opening an office in Munich under the stewardship of partner Olivier Litzka. The asset management company, which has been very active locally for more than 15 years, in particular through its Andera Life Sciences business, has thus taken its international development a step further. Alongside its existing coverage of France, Belgium and Italy, the DACH region represents a priority European region for Andera Partners, in addition to its investment activities in other European countries as well as in the United States.
Assets under management currently stand at more than €3.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28% following the fundraisings of BioDiscovery 6 by Andera Life Sciences, Expansion 3 by Andera Expansion and Smart Infra 1 by Andera Infra. Andera Partners is targeting €4-5 billion in assets under management by 2025. With these targets in mind, Andera Partners recruited 19 new employees in 2021, increasing its total workforce to 84 people.
Raphaël Wisniewski, partner and co-manager of Andera Partners, said: “We are particularly proud of our performance in 2021 and delighted to have reached the milestone of €3 billion in AUM. It is a collective achievement we owe to our teams, our portfolio companies and the renewed trust of our backers.”
Nearly €550 million deployed by the five Andera businesses
The five Andera Partners teams deployed €534 million of capital in 2021 through around 30 transactions. They raised more than €632 million, and completed 16 sales for proceeds of €613 million.
Andera Acto specialises in sponsorless mezzanine investment in French SMEs and mid-tier companies. In 2021, the team completed 17 transactions, including eight investments (DP Logiciels, Physitek, JDDG, Finalease Group Security, Legal 2 Digital, Enaco, Synacktiv and Sogetrel), five reinvestments including four as part of build-ups (Opportunity, Passman, Bioclinic and SMB) and four exits (Lease Protect, Joryf, TimeOne and Biogroup). This year was also marked by the unique closing of the Acto Heritage fund.
Andera Life Sciences specialises in financing innovative life sciences companies. The team completed two investments in 2021 (Amolyt Pharma and Evommune), six reinvestments including a Nasdaq IPO (Exciva, Artios, Agomab, T-Knife, Highlife and Nyxoah) and two exits (Arvelle Therapeutics and Sanifit). Andera Life Sciences portfolio companies launched two advanced clinical trials and seven early-stage clinical development trials. Andera Life Sciences is preparing to complete its sixth successful fundraising.
Andera Expansion and Andera Croissance specialise in equity finance for French SMEs. 2021 was marked by the raising of the third-generation Andera Expansion 3 fund, which met its hard-cap target of €250 million. The unit completed nine transactions, including six investments (TXCube, GSH, ImmoCity, MC2 Technologies, Patrimmofi and InTech Medical), two full exits (InTech Medical and Ipside) and one refinancing (ACB). Its portfolio companies made six acquisitions.
Andera MidCap specialises in equity finance for French and European SMEs and mid-tier companies. Over the year, the team completed two investments (KLUBB and Pusterla), one reinvestment (Potel & Chabot) and six exits (Infra Group, Skill & You, Minafin, The Reefer Group, Netco and Fontanel). Its portfolio companies made 24 acquisitions, 15 of which were aimed at boosting international growth. Andera MidCap is preparing to raise its fifth fund, with a target of €600 million.
Andera Infra specialises in financing green infrastructure. 2021 saw this new Andera Partners team launch its first fundraising with a first closing at €84 million for Andera Smart Infra 1, which went on to complete its first investment, in Watt&Co.
Andera Partners: fostering healthy, partnership-based growth
Over more than 25 years, Andera Partners has helped upscale nearly 280 companies in France, Europe and North America. Andera Partners currently supports the managers of 98 companies with a combined revenue of more than €6.3 billion. Beyond financial development, the Andera Partners teams encourage healthy, partnership-based growth, focusing specifically on their portfolio companies’ social footprint. In 2021, the companies that Andera Partners supports thus represented:
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34,740 employees
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2,259 job creations
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2,448 employee shareholders
Strengthening our CSR strategy
After strengthening the management company’s governance in 2020 by creating a supervisory board composed of Anne-France Malrieu, Christian Baillet and Jean-Louis Laurens, Andera Partners ramped up its CSR strategy by hiring a Chief Sustainability Officer, Noëlla de Bermingham, who was recently appointed Chair of France Invest’s Sustainability Commission.
Having joined Andera Partners in April 2021, Noëlla accordingly prepared Andera Partners’ first CSR report, which reaffirms the management company’s responsible ambitions and its commitment to promoting good health and well-being, gender equality, responsible consumption and production and measures to combat climate change. More than 20 portfolio companies benefited from a CSR assessment followed by the implementation of a roadmap with measurable targets.
A responsible and committed private equity player, Andera Partners was one of the first asset managers to join Impact, a platform designed to improve companies’ non-financial performance launched in May 2021 by Olivia Grégoire, Minister of State for the Social, Inclusive and Responsible Economy.
Andera also renewed its commitment to the non-profit sector by creating the Andera Partners Foundation, under the aegis of Fondation de France, to unite communities and the Andera teams around sustainability challenges.
2022, already a significant year
The teams kicked off 2022 by moving into new offices at 2 place Rio de Janeiro, just outside Parc Monceau in Paris’ eighth arrondissement. The purpose of this move to a 2,500 sq.m. double-storey site is to accommodate the strong growth of Andera Partners’ workforce, which has doubled in just four years.
The renewal of our historical activities’ investment vehicles (ActoMezz 4 in 2020, Andera Expansion 3 and BioDiscovery 6 in 2021) will be completed in the coming months with the fundraising of Andera MidCap 5, the successor fund to Winch Capital 4, with a target of €600 million.
Sylvain Charignon, partner and co-manager of Andera Partners, commented: “We are of course keeping our 2025 targets in mind and will continue to strengthen our teams and organisation. 2022, which will see us turn 20, will be a landmark year in the history of Andera Partners.”
Lastly, 2022 will also be marked by the launch of a sixth Andera Partners activity, with the arrival of a dedicated co-investment team.