The ambition of Barclays Private Equity France is to be an active and motivated shareholder of reference working side-by-side with managers. Along with its team’s extensive experience of the French market, Barclays Private Equity France benefits from the company’s European network (in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Italy) and from its position within one of the first-ranking financial groups worldwide. It proposes solutions to companies’ buyout and external development projects, engineering the raising and the syndication of all financing (equity, mezzanine, and senior debt) and becoming an active shareholder thereafter. Managers are provided with the support of an important financial group and with the experience of a specialized European team.

On the European level, Barclays Private Equity manages more than 5 billion euros (including 2.45 billion euros raised in August 2007). Since 1991, Barclays Private Equity has invested more than 1.4 billion euros in more than 90 deals in France. These companies, operating in most industrial and services sectors, represent a cumulative turnover of about 16 billion euros.

Our implication in the ESSEC Private Equity Chair

Already partner of a university research center on Private Equity in the United Kingdom (CMBOR), Barclays Private Equity is happy to support the first initiative in France of a chair dedicated to the study and the teaching of the private equity. Gonzague de Blignières and Guillaume Jacqueau (E87), respectively President and General Manager of Barclays Private Equity France, see in this initiative a unique opportunity to look further into the key challenges of the profession with an academic focus while contributing to the training of the future professionals of the sector. Gonzague de Blignières emphasizes: “This Chair is to shed new light on the Private Equity sector in France, especially in terms of its impact on economic activity, via the various case studies and research projects due to be conducted”.