European Middle Market

I'm attempting to learn more about the lower middle market sponsor community in Europe (inclusive of the UK), and I'm hoping that a few members can assist in providing direction and/or resources.

I am specifically interested in quantifying the number of financial sponsors/funds focused on the lower middle market. Bain's latest global private equity report doesn't seem to provide a breakout of this detail.

Apologies if this topic has been previously discussed, and thank you in advance.

6 Comments
 

UK here:

LMM is quite regional focussed - you have funds and advisors based in regional hubs (London for L& South East, Manchester for North). Ireland also has a few of their own LMM funds. Advisors tend to be some of the LMM-focussed names, and some regional-oriented boutiques / Big 4 regional offices

Obviously given this, unlike UMM / MF, English-only is acceptable.

Backgrounds - I feel there is a bias towards Big 4 CF / TAS here from what i've seen. It's more due to the deal sizes that Big 4 would typically work on (which fits with the funds).

I'm still on the sell-side so can't provide any more colour beyond that.

 

Quantifying the number of lower middle market firms in Europe is difficult... what exactly are you trying to achieve?

In regards to the above poster’s comments about LMM in the U.K., I agree with almost everything. While there are some firms that are super regionally focused (such as LDC), there are plenty of firms that operate exclusively out of London to cover all of the U.K.

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 
Most Helpful

Compbanker, I am focused on learning more about the competitive dynamics among funds/sponsor community in the lower middle market space in Europe. I'm interested, to the extent possible, in quantifying the number of players in the space, industry focus (if any), and consummated transactions over the past few years. Unfortunately, I can appreciate the inherent limitations associated with an analysis of the lower middle market.

Would you recommend a particular third party database? Pitchbook? IBIS? CapIQ?

It certainly helps knowing that these firms are regionally focused and don't necessarily cover large regions such as eastern and western Europe, Iberia, or Scandanavia.

Thanks!

 

I think CapIQ is really going to be your best tool. It has been awhile, but I believe you can sort by investment criteria and select various geographies. It won’t be 100% accurate but it will probably get you 80% of the way there.

As I was saying above, not every firm is regionally focused. For example, my firm invests in the U.K., Iberia, Scandinavia, and most of Europe...

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

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