‘Around the world in 80 days’: ECI raises £700m for eleventh fund

09/07/2018
Read Time: 2 Min

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: 

We’re delighted to have successfully raised our eleventh fund and look forward to investing in high growth UK businesses, helping them to expand and create jobs and wealth. We’ve been doing this successfully for 42 years now and the ECI 11 fundraise confirms our commitment to consistent investing in the UK’s exciting mid-market, a key driver for Britain’s economy.

We would like to thank our existing and new investors for their fantastic support. We are delighted that most of the capital raised for ECI 11 came from existing investors, some of whom have continuously invested with us for more than two decades now. We also welcome several new investors where we look forward to developing long-term relationships.

David Ewing

Managing Partner

David Ewing, ECI

About the author

David Ewing

I joined ECI in 2001 after an early career in software development, and since then have largely focussed my time at ECI on software and digital businesses. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some really great and ambitious management teams including our current portfolio companies: Avantia, Ciphr, ISMS, Moneypenny and Zenergi. Back in 2004, […]

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