Swiss asset manager Partners Group is leading a consortium of investors including Canada's Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and China's CIC Capital Corporation to acquire Foncia, a major French residential real estate and property management services, for €1.83 bn.
PropertyEU reported in June that Zug-based Partners Group was in exclusive negotiations to acquire the €2 bn property firm from Paris-listed Eurazeo and UK private equity firm Bridgepoint.
Foncia is a major French residential real estate and property management services and the number one in the country in joint-property management, lease management and renting. It manages a portfolio of more than 1.8 million properties across France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany.
The firm has a network of more than 500 branches run by nearly 8,000 employees. Eurazeo and Bridgepoint acquired the business in 2011 from banking giant BPCE for around €1 bn and have since boosted Foncia's revenue from €580 mln in 2010 to €700 mln last year.
Following the acquisition, which is still subject to antitrust clearance, the Partners Group consortium will work with Foncia's management team to continue the company's strategy of consolidation in the highly fragmented French property management market as well as to accelerate its international expansion.
'Foncia is a unique asset in the property management sector. Thanks to its integrated model and market leadership, the company has grown impressively over the past few years,' said Kim Nguyen, managing director, Private Equity Europe, Partners Group. 'We have tracked its progress closely and are attracted by the resilient and cash generative nature of the business. Going forward, we see a number of clearly defined growth avenues for the Company both in France and within the wider European market.'
Qing Zhang, Executive Vice-President, CIC Capital, added: 'With the top spot in the French property services market and the opportunity to expand across the region, Foncia is the sort of growth-focused acquisition opportunity that CIC Capital looks for. Joint investment with private markets investment managers and other institutional investors is an important strategy that CIC Capital pursues. In future, we anticipate developing more of such opportunities with Partners Group and our other business partners.'
François Davy, CEO, added: 'Over these five years, Foncia has expanded and transformed significantly. The strategy defined jointly with Eurazeo and Bridgepoint enabled us to enhance our performance in a difficult regulatory context and step up our external growth policy. These development efforts have been recognized by Partners Group with whom we are going to pursue our strategy based on growth and transformation.'
The deal is planned for closing by no later than September 2016.
