International Corporate Finance

INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE FINANCE EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTORS

Private Equity teams that enjoy in-depth work on their portfolio companies are rare. Montefiore Investment are one of them.

Their ethos can be explained by the fund founders’ history, which triggered a truly different vision of investment.

MONTEFIORE INVESTMENT:

MASTERS OF GROWTH-DRIVEN

TRANSFORMATION

Created in 2005, Montefiore Investment

was able to raise its fourth investment

vehicle in barely three months. While

the first fund had only €40 million, this

latest one quickly attracted €420 million.

Only half was from French institutional

investors, the rest came from LPs from all

around the world. How did they surpass

the €350 million target and reach an LPs

demand in excess of €700 million?

It mainly comes down to having one of

the highest performances on the market,

with a net ROI of 21% across their three

funds. And the fact that three-quarters of

this performance was generated from the

portfolio accelerated growth.

Using leverage as a basic tool and not the

core of their investment strategy, Monte-

fiore’s team built its reputation using its

undeniable expertise in generating pro-

fitable growth in the service sector. They

eagerly focus on what they call locally

supplied services (économie présentielle

in French), investing in companies with

revenues between €20 and €200 million.

What makes the team so original is its ge-

nuine taste for developing businesses. Bu-

siness owners and managers will find in

Montefiore’s leaders true partners who are

simultaneously investors and strategic en-

trepreneurs. While finishing his Centrale

Paris engineering & economics degree,

Éric Bismuth co-founded a software com-

pany for managing positions on the MA-

TIF futures exchange. He then joined The

Boston Consulting Group, soon becoming

Managing Director in charge of the service

sector in France, and the hotels and lei-

sure practice worldwide. Daniel Elalouf

worked at Morgan Stanley, then at Permi-

ra, and brought an extensive knowledge of

finance, but also insights on the professio-

nal services and technology sectors. This

team strength and focus grew further with

the 2011 arrival of Jean-Marc Espalioux,

former Chairman of Accor and Financière

Agache PE. Every year since 2005, the

team has become stronger with additional

recruits.

In 2005, Montefiore’s deep expertise led to

the team being called in by Eurazeo to

co-invest in B&B, the budget hotel chain.

Later, it was Carlyle who tapped Monte-

fiore Investment as co-investors, again on

B&B Hotels and when they took over Ho-

mair Vacances. The owners and CEOs of

other service companies like Voyageurs du

Monde, Asmodée, BVA, Interflora, Mister

Fly, and more recently Isabel Marant, also

chose this atypical investor.

FUND NAME VINTAGE FUND SIZE CURRENT PORTFOLIO NET IRR

Montefiore Investment I 2005 €40m Fully divested

21.00%

Montefiore Investment II 2007 €120m

Fully divested, ex. one

company

Montefiore Investment III 2013 €240m

BVA

Lyovel

Groupe Evariste

Homair Vacances

Interflora

Biolab

Voyageurs du monde

DSO Interactive

Mister Fly

Isabel Marant

Montefiore Investment IV 2016 €420m Just raised -

Montefiore Investment: A stellar track-record