ECI Partners today announces the first and final closing of its eleventh buyout fund, ECI 11 (“the Fund”). ECI launched the fundraise mid-April 2018 with a target fund size of £650m and closed at the hard cap of £700m less than three months later.
ECI 11 is 40% larger than its predecessor fund ECI 10 and was materially oversubscribed with a reup rate of c.80% from existing investors. There are a total of 25 institutional investors in the fund including leading pension funds, insurance companies, fund of funds, endowments and family offices from across the UK, US, Europe and Asia.
Founded as Equity Capital for Industry in 1976, ECI has now raised £2.4bn of external capital since launch and is one of the UK’s longest-established private equity partnerships. This close makes ECI the first private equity firm investing in UK-headquartered companies to raise an eleventh buyout fund focused on the same strategy.
ECI 11 is a successor fund to ECI 10, a £500m fund which started investing in October 2014, and will seek to employ the same investment strategy focused on growth buyouts in companies with an enterprise value of between £20m to £150m. ECI 11 will continue helping high growth businesses expand into new markets, complete acquisitions and drive organic revenue through a combination of digital marketing, sales expertise and investing in people and technology. ECI’s team of 28 investment professionals will actively support growth using the expertise and experience of our dedicated Origination, Commercial and Investment teams.
ECI 11 was raised without using any placement agent support and Macfarlanes LLP acted as lead legal counsel.
David Ewing, Managing Partner, said:
