November 05, 2020
5 november 2020
BNP Paribas Cardif and BNP Paribas Banque Privée have introduced Apax Private Equity Opportunities (APEO), a private equity unit-linked product managed by Apax Partners and marketed exclusively to clients of BNP Paribas Banque Privée.
BNP Paribas Cardif is including the Apax Private Equity Opportunities (APEO) venture capital fund (FCPR)(1) in life insurance savings contracts marketed by BNP Paribas Banque Privée. This new investment product for life insurance clients is managed by Apax Partners, a recognized leader in private equity in Europe.
Approved by French financial markets regulator AMF(2), APEO is an evergreen fund(3) eligible for inclusion in French unit-linked life insurance contracts. This product offers private investors a new way to make meaningful long-term savings investments by contributing to direct financing of the real economy via unlisted French and European small and mid-market firms that are aligned with environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria to ensure responsible business plans with a long-term vision.
The fund is diversified across the size of the companies financed (valuations between 10 and 500 million euros), sectors (Tech & Telecom, Services, Healthcare and Consumer) and geographies (France and Continental Europe).
Commenting on the creation of APEO, Apax Partners President Eddie Misrahi said: “Private equity has long been considered as an asset class able to deliver performance, but lacking liquidity and inherently high-risk, making it attractive mainly to institutional investors. Since the 1980s, however, this asset class has become more mature and structured and has outperformed other asset classes with moderate risk exposure, particularly in the buyout capital segment, which targets established, profitable businesses. This is why Apax Partners has decided to make these private equity opportunities more widely available to private investors by bringing them access to the most attractive venture capital transactions.”
“We have been offering private equity investment solutions to clients of BNP Paribas Banque Privée since 2016. This new fund underlines our commitment to providing seasoned investors seeking to diversify their asset allocation in today’s low interest rate environment exposure to a solution that at the same time enables meaningful investment savings. By expanding our private equity offers within unit-linked life insurance contracts and capitalization contracts we are contributing to the long-term growth of unlisted businesses and supporting the real economy,” said Fabrice Bagne, Head of BNP Paribas Cardif France.
“Reflecting our focus on continually finding better ways to meet the needs of our clients, including venture capital funds in life insurance contracts enables our clients to diversify their portfolios via an asset class that was long reserved to institutional investors. This fund provides access to attractive, complementary strategies that are relatively decorrelated from conventional financial investments, while facilitating financing of the long-term business plans of French and European small- and mid-market enterprises,” added Nicolas Otton, Director of BNP Paribas Banque Privée.
APEO has been available since 2 November, 2020 in the range of life insurance and capitalization contracts proposed by BNP Paribas Banque Privée.(4)
1 At least 50% of the assets in FCPR (Fonds Communs de Placement à Risques) venture capital funds are invested in unlistee securities.
2 Autorité des Marchés Financiers.
3 Open-ended for 99 years with no initial marketing period set.
4 Marketed exclusively by BNP Paribas Banque Privée until 31 March 2021