The building, typical of a successful private equity firm’s HQ, is clean, spacious, uncluttered, modern but not ostentatious, and with a conspicuous lack of the type of flunkies populating the offices of many European long-only fund houses.
The sunny sixth floor, above accommodation occupied by fellow tenants Barclays Private Equity and Global Private Equity, is home to fund of funds player Access Capital Partners, founded at the end of 1998 by BNP veterans Agnes Nahum and Dominique Peninon.
There were few pan-European players then, apart from Pantheon, founded in 1987, well before the mini fund of funds boom kick-started by the Myners report into institutional investment, commissioned by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown to promote private equity.
Things are different today. There have been a host of other well-known portfolio investors ready to make commitments to venture funds, names like Alpinvest, EIF, and Swiss Re. But Access concentrates purely on selecting underlying managers of European mid-market buyout and technology funds, not straying into US or Asian investments. Any diversification will be into central Europe during the next two or three years.
“We want to see everyone in the market, even if they are not fund raising,” confesses Ms Nahum. This research-driven approach is paying off. Access downgraded fund-raising targets in 2002 when investors preferred cash. There have been new clients in recent years, including private banks, insurance companies and a European employer union, with typical commitments in the €30m bracket. That’s why a €250m mandate from the New York State Common Retirement Fund has raised spirits at Access.
The next target is the UK, where private equity allocations for pension schemes average just 2 per cent, against 5 to 10 per cent in the US. More than a quarter of the group’s €1bn in managed assets come from the US, but less than 5 per cent from European investors outside France. There is just one problem. Access is used to dealing directly with clients and specialist fund selection houses. The idiosyncratic world of UK consultants may still prove a challenge.
Yuri Bender, editor-in-chief
yuri.bender@ft.com
