LONDON (Alliance News) - Apax Global Alpha Ltd, a private equity investor chaired by former Legal & General Group PLC boss Tim Breedon, is confident of investing the proceeds of its initial public offering within six months, according to a statement on Wednesday.
The London-listed investment company, which offers exposure to investments made by private equity firm Apax Partners, went public at 119.2 pence per share in June, when it raised GBP218.2 million, or EUR300.0 million, in an initial public offering. The stock was down 0.1% at 119.96 pence on Wednesday morning. It had net cash of EUR188 million at the end of September.
Ralf Gruss, the chief operating officer at Apax Partners, said he was pleased with the "continued strong operational performance" of the portfolio companies in which Apax Global Alpha has invested, both through its private equity investments and those in areas such as public and private debt.
The investment company's net asset value, when adjusted to exclude pro forma performance fees, was EUR875 million at the end of September, giving an adjusted NAV per share of GBP1.32 at the same stage against GBP1.27 at the end of June.
Its gross internal rate of return, an aggregate, annual, compound, internal rate of return calculated on the basis of cash receipts and payments together with the valuation of unrealised investments at the measurement date, was 21.8% in the first nine months of 2015, which, according to Apax Global Alpha, was a 28.8% outperformance of its benchmarks in the same period.
"The current market environment and increased volatility requires careful investment selection but also presents opportunities to purchase derived investments at attractive prices. In private equity, valuation levels have slightly reduced relative to 2014 and thus more deals have been executed recently," Gruss said in a statement.
Gruss said that both Apax Global Alpha and the investment manager are confident of investing or committing the net proceeds of the IPO in full within six months.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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Apax Global Alpha (APAX)