Resource Spotlight

Doughty Hanson

Doughty Hanson and Company, headquartered in London, is one of Europe’s leading buyout-focused private equity firms. With offices in Stockholm, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid, the firm draws on the talents and regional expertise of over fifty investment professionals representing 15 different nationalities. Founded in 1985, Doughty Hanson has completed over 118 investments with a total value of more than 28 billion Euros ($38.2 billion USD), over a diversity of sectors including transportation, media, energy, business services, telecommunications, and aerospace. Doughty Hanson takes an active role in the management of portfolio companies, providing the services of their Value Enhancement Group in order to build the value of invested businesses through the improvement of business strategy, cash generation, cost reduction, and revenue growth. Acquisitions are made through purchase of a majority stake in portfolio companies, developing management teams with equity stakes in the business to ensure a strategic alignment of goals throughout the value enhancement process. Prominent acquisitions include Dunlop Standard Aerospace, sports equipment maker Umbro, the luxury goods company Tag Heuer, and the 20:20 Mobile Group.

BC Partners

BC Partners, founded in 1986, is a prominent private equity firm specializing in large buyouts, with a total value of over 66 billion Euros ($89.2 billion USD). Headquartered in London, England, with offices in Paris, Hamburg, Milan, New York, and Geneva, the partners of this firm rely on a collective decision-making paradigm that utilizes local knowledge of markets and a broad range of industry experience spanning Europe and North America. BC Partners is invested in over seventy companies worldwide, and draws upon the experience and cultural diversity of over fifty investment professionals in order to provide highly customized acquisition and structuring solutions. Focusing on constructing a small number of carefully researched transactions, the BC Partners team concentrates on large-scale multi-country transactions, and has the capability to commit over 2 billion Euros ($2.7 billion USD) to a single transaction. As a signatory of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, BC Partners is dedicated to incorporating consideration for environmental, social, and regional issues into every aspect of their decision-making processes for investment and management.

Madison Dearborn Partners

Founded in 1992, Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (MDP) is a private equity firm based in Chicago, with five active funds including a total of over $14.1 billion in investments. Madison Dearborn focuses on management buyouts, structured growth/equity transactions, and other types of private equity investment in a variety of sectors such as Healthcare, Financial Services, Communications, Energy and Power, Consumer, and Basic Industries, which includes industries such as metals, building products, chemicals, paper, construction materials, packaging, and other cyclical and non-cyclical segments. Madison Dearborn generally targets investments between $100 million and $600 million per management buyout transaction, and between $100 million and $400 million per structured transaction or growth equity investment, although more capital can be committed in a single transaction. MDP buyout transactions are frequently focused on recapitalizations of closely-held companies seeking to raise capital without going public or sacrificing ownership. Structured or growth equity transactions generally include companies looking to fund rapid growth, internal restructuring, or mergers and acquisitions. Prominent companies invested in by Madison Dearborn Partners include candle maker Yankee Candle, Univision Communications, LA Fitness, computer equipment and services reseller CDW, and The Topps Company, maker of baseball cards.