We’re delighted to have been selected as finalists in two more categories at the 2024 Real Deals Private Equity Awards.
The Real Deals are Europe’s most prestigious and long-running awards and we’re thrilled to be shortlisted in the European Fund of the Year and ESG Champion of the Year categories. This is on the back of previous shortlisting for UK Upper-Mid Cap Deal of the Year and PE House of the Year – Mid-Cap.
Our shortlisting for European Fund of the Year recognises that ECI have delivered significant overall performance, standout deals, and the ability to achieve strong investor returns. On an aggregate basis, our ECI 10 fund aimed to generate over 2x TVPI and 20% net IRR for investors. The total return multiple exceeded expectations at 3.4x and 28% gross IRR / 2.6x TVPI and 21% net IRR with the DPI for this 2015 vintage fund currently at 2.5x.
The ESG Champion of the the Year Award is recognition of our commitment to environmental, social and governance initiatives, cemented by our B Corp certification last year – one of only a limited number of investment firms. The initiatives that contributed to our shortlisting include:
- commitment to supporting our portfolio to decarbonise though Article 8 fund classification
- developed and rolled out a portfolio ESG toolkit sharing best practices, case studies, resources and tracking
- a founder member of Level 20, the not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving gender diversity in European private equity
- membership of #10000BlackInterns, a program to provide 10,000 internships to black students and recent graduates over the next five years .
The recognition comes after a milestone year for ECI after closing our largest ever fund, ECI 12, with a hard cap of £1bn, and delivering 4 exits at an average return of 4.7x average gross MOIC. We were also delighted that the Tusker exit to Lloyds Banking Group, generating a return of 6.2x gross MOIC, has been recognised as an exceptional deal of the year.
