London-headquartered private equity firm Apax Partners has raised about $750 million for the first generation of its dedicated credit funds.
“We see credit as an important extra arrow in our quiver,” Mitch Truwit, Co-CEO at Apax, said in a statement. “This strategy allows us to diversify the way in which we can support companies identified through our private equity sub-sector diligence, while also providing our investors with another way to access compelling returns.”
Apax Partners joins global peers such as Apollo Global, Blackstone, KKR and Bain Capital in raising credit funds. The private credit market is booming in India, too, with several global firms making debt investments and many Indian companies raising credit funds.
The PE firm said it has invested in credit for over a decade, including advising London-listed Apax Global Alpha on its credit investment portfolio. In total, Apax has made about 90 credit investments since 2013, deploying about $1.5 billion. It made 19 credit investments over the past 12 months.
The firm didn’t specify the countries where it plans to make credit investments but said its credit strategy is “fully integrated” into the wider Apax platform. The credit team works with the private equity teams to meet the increasing demand for flexible, long-term private credit solutions, it said.
The firm said that its credit strategy is "highly synergistic" with its PE strategies and that the Apax Credit Funds, like the firm's PE funds, will focus on four core sectors – technology, services, healthcare and internet/consumer. Apax Credit Funds have a flexible mandate, with the ability to invest across the capital structure, it added.
Apax Partners, founded in 1969, operates through offices in New York, Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Munich, and London. It recently struck its first deal in India in two years when it inked a secondary PE transaction with Blackstone to invest in IBS Software. It has exited non-bank lenders Manappuram Finance and Shriram Finance this year.
Apax's notable India-related investments include Fractal Analytics, Healthium MedTech, Apollo Hospitals, Zensar Technologies, Infogain, Cholamandalam Investment & Finance Company, and GlobalLogic.
In July, the firm appointed Anurag Sud as the new head for India. Sud succeeded veteran Shashank Singh, who decided to quit the firm after almost 20 years.