Unigestion launches global small and mid-market private equity fund

In line with Unigestion’s conviction-driven investment style, the private equity team will continue to seek areas of growth, spot attractive investment themes and focus exclusively on managers with proven industrial and strategic transformation skills. Several fund investments have already been pre-selected for the programme, including some secondary investments to kick-start the portfolio.

Unigestion is convinced that the small and mid-market continues to be the most interesting and attractive private equity segment. This conviction has been confirmed by the recent ‘Size matters – small is beautiful 2.0’ study conducted in cooperation with Professor Oliver Gottschalg, associate professor at HEC Business School Paris. The study indicates that an optimally diversified global small-cap portfolio should not only outperform a more concentrated large-cap portfolio, but should also deliver a similar performance, with less risk, as a comparable regional portfolio. Furthermore, the study reveals that global portfolios deliver more robust performance than regional portfolios as returns by region are not fully synchronised. With most economies in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific expected to develop well, growth remains uneven across regions and sectors. This will present a challenging, yet rewarding, investment environment favouring a global portfolio.

Christophe de Dardel, Head of Private Equity at Unigestion, said:

“The current market conditions require investors more than ever to work with specialists that are able to identify off-market opportunities and provide access to specialist funds. Unigestion has a rich heritage in small to mid-market private equity investing, dating back over twenty years. This expertise and experience has frequently been recognised by our peers and just in March of this year, we were named ‘Small-Mid Market PE Firm of the Year – Europe’ by Acquisition International and have been shortlisted for this year’s ‘Private Equity Manager of the Year’ award by European Pensions.”

With the acquisition of Akina in 2017, Unigestion’s private equity business now stands at USD 7 billion with a 50 people strong team, operating from 6 offices around the world: Geneva, Zurich, London, New Jersey City, Singapore and Luxemburg. The team focuses on primary fund investments, secondary investments and direct co-investments in the small and mid-market in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.