Equity Partners Fund No. 3
Equity Partners (www.equitypartners.com.au) were formed in 1995 and commenced fund raising soon after for their first Venture Capital (VC) fund. By 2000 Equity Partners had approximately $140m in commitments under management with the majority of those commitments targeting expansion stage investments into businesses with revenues in the range $5m to $50m.
Since turning their focus from a mixture of VC and expansion stage investing to that of only expansion and buyout investing into profitable businesses during 2002, the team at Equity Partners have been able to demonstrate a strong track record of generating top quartile returns for investors.
Furthermore the expansion and buyout investments led by Rajeev Dhawan (a Partner at Equity Partners since 2004), while at Colonial First State Private Equity (CFSPE), have also demonstrated top quartile performance.
Equity Partners Fund No. 3, with a fund size of $76m, will focus on investing into small to lower mid market buyout and expansion capital opportunities in profitable, predominately Australian businesses, with enterprise value of between $20 million and $80 million at investment.
Equity Partners Fund No. 3 has completed two investments to date, which include, Skins Consolidated Pty Ltd (Skins) and HRV / E-Co Products Group Limited (HRV)
Skins is a leading designer and marketer of a range of sports apparel in the rapidly growing compression products market. The Skins brand is recognised in Australia as the premium product in the compression category, providing improved performance and recovery for sports participants of all levels.
The ‘active' sports apparel market is the fastest growing segment of the sports goods market globally and demand for compression products is expected to continue to grow strongly.
The Skins business has grown rapidly over the last 5 years to become the dominant player in the Australian market, and has established initial global infrastructure over the last 18 months to accelerate its offshore expansion program.
The investment by Equity Partners provides expansion funding to facilitate the continued development of the Skins international expansion plans.
HRV provides an integrated product offering consisting of design, supply, installation, finance and ongoing maintenance of positive pressure home ventilation systems in New Zealand and Australia.
The positive pressure home ventilation system continuously recovers warmer, drier air from ceiling cavities which is then filtered and forced through living spaces such that purified air displaces stale moist air in the home. The key benefits of the system include improvement in home air quality, control of condensation and improved energy efficiency.
The company has a national franchise network in NZ, complemented by an emerging presence in Australia. Since commencement, HRV has installed more than 60,000 units in NZ homes with more than 1,000 units installed in homes in Victoria (Australia) since July 2008.