Exclusive: Portobello closes Fund III on €375m

The Madrid-based firm closed the vehicle in August on its increased hard-cap
Portobello Capital, a Spanish mid-market investor, has closed its third fund on its increased hard-cap of €375 million, PEI has learnt.
The firm closed the oversubscribed fund in August, according to a source familiar with the matter. The fund came to market at the end of last year, targeting €300 million with a €350 million hard-cap. Portobello held a €337 million first close in June. Demand for fund was such that Portobello sought LP permission to increase the fund by €25 million to allow a number of other investors into the fund, the source added.
It is understood Probitas Partners assisted Portobello with the fundraise. Both Probitas and Portobello declined to comment.
Portobello put in a GP commitment of 2 percent, according to the source. The vehicle attracted different types of LPs, but mainly pension funds and insurance companies, the source said. It is understood there are fewer fund of funds in Portobello’s third fund than in its prior vehicle. Approximately 75 percent of investors in Fund III are LPs from outside of Spain.
For Portobellos, which invests in Spanish mid-market companies between €30 million and €300 million, it will be the first fund raised under its current name. In 2010, the current team, consisting of five investment professional, spun out from Ibersuizas Capital, a captive vehicle owned by a group of Spanish entrepreneurs, in which it had a 34 percent stake.
The majority shareholders of that management company tried to get further control of the company, which resulted in a dispute with the investment team. The disagreement came to a head when 90 percent of investors in the fund decided to fire the management company and remove the GP, the source said.
In January 2011, the five investment professionals were appointed as the new GP. The team renamed the firm Portobello Capital and the existing fund was also renamed Portobello Capital II. The firm is now run by three seniors partners: Juan Luis Ramirez Belaustegui, Ramón Cerdeiras and Iñigo Sánchez-Asiaín; and two partners: Fernando Chinchurreta and Luis Peñarrocha.
Portobello Capital II, a €331 million 2006 vintage, has been fully invested, although it has some capital left over for add-on acquisitions. The vehicle has returned «almost 60 percent of the fund» to its LPs and was valued at 1.83x as of last August, PEI reported at the time.
News of Portobellos’s fundraise comes just a day after Barcelona-based Miura Private Equity closed its second fund on its €200 millon hard-cap. The fund attracted European and North American institutional investors, including pension funds, fund-of-funds, asset managers and family offices, the firm said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Madrid-based ProA Capital is nearing a first close on its second fund, PEI revealed last week. The firm, which is targeting €325 million for the vehicle, will hold a close in excess of €250 million in the next two weeks, according to a source familiar with the matter. The firm has so far received «strong support» from existing investors, but has also attracted new LPs, the source said. ProA is expected to reach its €350 million hard-cap before the end of the year.
BY: YOLANDA BOBELDIJK
PRIVATE EQUITY INTERNATIONAL