EQT today announced the recruitment of Frank Heckes and David Forde to jointly lead EQT Private Equity’s team in Australia and New Zealand. The team will be based in Sydney and work alongside EQT’s Infrastructure team, led by Ken Wong, and continue to further build EQT’s overall presence in the region.

Frank Heckes and David Forde both have extensive investment experience in the private equity market, in partner and senior executive positions across both Australia and Europe, at firms including Archer Capital, TPG Capital and CCMP Capital.

Ken Wong, who leads EQT’s Infrastructure team in Australia and New Zealand said: “We are excited to welcome Frank and David to EQT and to also add EQT’s Private Equity business line to the Sydney office. Australia and New Zealand are key parts of EQT’s focus to grow in Asia Pacific across business lines, and these new hires demonstrate EQT’s commitment and ambitions for the region.”

“We are delighted to have found two such high calibre individuals to lead our Private Equity team in Australia and New Zealand. Both Frank and David bring strong networks and track records and are ideally qualified to bring EQT’s approach to developing companies. Working alongside Ken, they will help to build on the thematic investments we have already made in the region” states Simon Griffiths, Head of EQT Private Equity APAC.

EQT’s investments in Australia and New Zealand currently includes EQT Infrastructure’s pending acquisition of leading New Zealand retirement village operator Metlifecare, and EQT Mid Market Asia’s investment in IT-services provider Nexon Asia Pacific. EQT previously invested in the Australian diagnostic imaging service provider I-MED between 2014 and 2018.

The announcement supports EQT’s strategy of further expanding its presence in the strategically important Asia Pacific region. In alignment with EQT’s “local-with-locals” approach, the Private Equity team will seek to find thematic investment opportunities in close collaboration with EQT’s global platform and extensive network, including the Wallenberg family network.

Contact
EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com

About EQT
EQT is a differentiated global investment organization with more than EUR 62 billion in raised capital and around EUR 40 billion in assets under management across 19 active funds. EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America with total sales of more than EUR 27 billion and approximately 159,000 employees. EQT works with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

More info: www.eqtgroup.com
Follow EQT on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram

Jonas Ågrup, who was the acting CFO of Ratos since February 2020, will take over the position on a permanent basis on 1 October. Peter Wallin will thus step down from his position as CFO but will remain as Executive Chairman of the Ratos company HENT.

Before Jonas Ågrup assumed the position of acting CFO of Ratos, he was CFO of Munters. Previous positions also include CFO of ÅF/AFRY. Peter Wallin will resign as CFO of Ratos but will remain as the Executive Chairman of HENT.

“I would like to thank Peter Wallin, who as CFO contributed to Ratos’s development through a new governance model and by creating the Ratos Business Areas. Peter also contributed to the positive development of the Construction & Services Business Area during his time as Head of the Business Area. Peter is now withdrawing from all assignments at Ratos but will continue as Executive Chairman of HENT,” says Jonas Wiström, CEO of Ratos.

For further information, please contact:
Jonas Wiström, CEO, Ratos, +46 8 700 17 00
Helene Gustafsson, Head of IR and Press, Ratos, +46 8 700 17 98, helene.gustafsson@ratos.se

About Ratos:
Ratos is a business group consisting of 12 companies divided into three business areas: Construction & Services, Consumer & Technology and Industry. In total, the companies have SEK 38 billion in sales and EBITA of SEK 1.8 billion. Our business concept is to develop mid-sized companies headquartered in the Nordics that are or can become market leaders. We enable independent mid-sized companies to excel by being part of something larger. People, leadership, culture and values are key focus areas for Ratos. Everything we do is based on Ratos’s core values: Simplicity, Speed in Execution and It’s All About People.

LONDON – September 16, 2020 – H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”), a leading global alternative investment firm with $40 billion of equity capital under management, announced today that it has hired Andrew Liau to co-lead its infrastructure team alongside Ed Pallesen. Andrew will be based in London, with primary day-to-day responsibility for the infrastructure teams’ activity in Europe, while Ed will continue to be based in New York with primary focus on the Americas.

Andrew has over 20 years of experience in private equity and investment banking. Before joining H.I.G., he was a Senior Managing Director in the infrastructure group at Ardian, a leading Paris based private equity firm, where he led a number of successful core plus investments. Prior to Ardian, he was a founding member of First State Investments’ European infrastructure team. He began his career at RBC, where he worked on infrastructure financings.

H.I.G.’s infrastructure investments are focused on mid-market opportunities and target mostly operating companies that can benefit from H.I.G.’s value added operating expertise. H.I.G. has previously completed more than a dozen such investments.

Sami Mnaymneh and Tony Tamer, founders and co-CEOs of H.I.G. commented: “We are excited to welcome Andrew to the team. His impressive background and experience will be instrumental in growing our infrastructure business”.

Ed Pallesen added: “I am looking forward to working with Andrew as we build on H.I.G.’s unique capabilities and track record. The market opportunity for value-added, middle market infrastructure investments globally has never been more attractive”.

About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $40 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach:

1. H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
2. H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.
3. H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $30 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com.

* Based on total capital commitments managed by H.I.G. Capital and affiliates.

AXA Venture Partners (AVP) accelerates onthe development of itsgrowth strategy and is pleased to announce the appointment of a new General Partner in Paris. Benoit Fosseprez, who was Deputy CEOand CEO Franceof Veepee,will be joining the team as General Partner and will be managing the Growth Fund together with François Robinet, Imran Akram,and Alex Scherbakovsky. Benoit is an experienced leaderwith a very inspiring background combining deep knowledge of the techindustry and strong operational experience in a leading digital company.

Benoit has successfully been CFO and then Deputy CEO, focusingon France, of Veepee, a digital-native e-retailer in 14 marketswith over €4bn in sales. Benoit started his career inthe year 2000, by helpingthe first generation of French tech entrepreneurs as an investment banker focused on Technology, Media and Telecommunicationsat CACIB. He then led the development of the investment banking platform of this bank in the USA, based in NewYork, for five years. As CFO of Veepee.com, Benoit invested in several growth tech companies. Benoit brings a strong knowledge of the European tech ecosystem, combining more than 12 years of investment banking in France,and strong operational experience at Veepee.com as a C-level executive.“On behalf of the AVP team, I am extremely happy and proud to welcome Benoit as a General Partner of ourGrowth Fund. Benoit will reinforce our leadership team and will bring a solid knowledge of the tech ecosystem but even more a strong operational background in a period of acceleration of ourGrowth strategy. We also believe that the AVP team,after 5 years of successfullyworking together, isready to welcome a new member. This is a healthy development for our platform” commented François Robinet,AVP Managing Partner.

Paris –London-New York–San Francisco –Hong Kong Benoit reinforces the existing global growth team led by Francois Robinet (Paris), Imran Akram (London),and Alex Scherbakovsky (NewYork) for its new Growth Fund, AVP Capital II. The team willalsobe further strengthened shortly by the recruitment of several additional senior level individuals. “With a differentiating true transatlantic presence and a proven multi-stage trackrecord in the tech industry, AVP is an impressive independent investment platform to accompany entrepreneurs in their growth. The quality and complementarity of the teams, together with the support of a committed global financial institution, AXA, are two pillars that support the ambitious objective of AVP to become a leading Ventureand GrowthCapital firm in Europe and in the USA. I strongly believe in the value that AVP can bring to both investors and tech entrepreneurs, especially in the growth segment,whichwill benefit from very strong tailwindsin Europe”, commented BenoitFosseprez, AVP General Partner.

ABOUT AVP

AXA Venture Partners (AVP) is a global venture capital firm investing in high-growth, technology-enabled companies. AVP has built, in less than five years, a unique investment platform specialized in tech investments with $800 million of assets under management through three pillars of investment expertise: early stage, growth stage, and fund of funds. To date, AVP has invested in more than 45 companies and more than 20funds. The AVP team operates globally with offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong. Beyond investments, AVP provides unique access to business development opportunities helping portfolio companies to scale globally and accelerate their growth.

More details here: www.axavp.com

For further information, please contact: Sébastien LOUBRY Partner, Business Development Sebastien@axavp.com06.15.31.61.68