MADRID, 20 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish management company Swanlaab Venture Factory and the Dutch Scipio Capital have launched this Monday a fund of 25 million euros to buy companies and lead them, which in the jargon of the sector is known as ‘search funds’, and they hope that it will begin to operate in the first half of 2024 and complete around twenty acquisitions over five years.
The firms have detailed in a joint press release that the vehicle will invest in Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America and Oceania, while they hope to take advantage of their respective experiences in technology to invest in consolidated businesses – “generating cash in a way almost immediate” – that have or can develop an important technological component.
Likewise, they have explained that the fund seeks to capitalize on the opportunity created by small and medium-sized family businesses (SMEs) that generate annual profits and where the owner, who wishes to retire, has no one to take over.
In that sense, they have cited a study from the Stanford business school that states that ‘search funds’ have a potential return of more than 30% annually.
For its part, Scipio has more than three years of experience in this type of assets and has completed a dozen acquisitions on four continents, which gives them, according to the statement, the experience to identify and negotiate the acquisition of those businesses. with the greatest potential to generate value with the appropriate management and professional guidance.
Scipio’s managing partner, Aitor Sancho, stressed that they now needed to take the next step and launch a regulated investment vehicle if they wanted to take advantage of the “enormous amount of investment opportunities.”
For his part, Swanlaab director, Mark Kavelaars, has considered that search funds represent a “natural complement” to his core investment strategies in B2B and agrotech software; Likewise, he has highlighted that this new vehicle will offer investors “attractive returns” uncorrelated with other asset classes such as investments in listed markets.
