AP6 invests in EQT’s Bureau van Dijk
Swedish pension fund Sjätte AP-fonden (AP6) has taken a 3% stake in EQT-owned business information company Bureau van Dijk (BvD) through a direct co-investment.
The investment was made when the deal was closed at the end of 2014, as EQT syndicated out part of its equity investment to LPs.
AP6 is an LP in the €4.75bn EQT VI fund, which acquired BvD in a July 2014 deal reported to be worth in excess of €1bn.
EQT offered direct investment opportunities in BvD to LPs in its EQT VI fund to bring down the size of the GP's own equity stake to a level more in line with the fund's target investment size, AP6 investment director Fabian Dahl told unquote".
The Swedish pension fund has a track record of direct investments and co-investments, allocating 41% of its SEK 22.1bn in capital to direct investments and 27% to fund investments.
Investment director Vidar Andersch said AP6 both co-invests in opportunities offered by GPs, as well as originates its own direct investments. The investment manager added that AP6's equity tickets range from €10-100m per investment.
AP6 has previously participated in deals such as Nordic Capital's secondary buyout of Lindorff from Altor, and HgCapital's investment in Visma.
Previous funding
The investment by AP6 follows that of EQT. The latter is BvD's fourth private equity owner, having bought the company from Charterhouse, which itself had acquired it from BC Partners for €960m in July 2011.
BC's original purchase of BvD was a secondary buyout from Candover in 2007, which represented a 2.3x return on Candover's initial investment. The deal value was thought to stand at around €300m.
Company
Amsterdam-based BvD was founded in 1991 and has 650 employees operating in 33 offices across Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.
The publisher provides information about private companies and corporate structures, primarily to business clients.
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