Australian buyout firm Quadrant Private Equity has raised $255 million from investors including Future Fund and ROC Partners for a new single asset fund that will buy and own the group’s auto parts distributor, MotorOne according to a story in The Australian Financial Review.
In a look at what’s likely ahead for other Australian private equity-owned companies, Quadrant will sell MotorOne on behalf of investors in its QPE Fund 4 into the new “continuation” fund, and manage the new fund for Future Fund and ROC - and a clutch of the country’s richest people.
The deal valued the auto parts company at about $450 million, including debt, and allows Quadrant to make money for existing investors and still back MotorOne management’s plans to set up a network of as many as 40 collision repair shops along Australia’s east coast in the coming three years.
Quadrant Private Equity executive chairman Chris Hadley, arguably Australia’s most successful private equity dealmaker, said continuation funds, where a PE manager sells an asset on behalf of investors in one fund to a new set of investors, were prevalent in Europe and the United States and coming to Australia.
The new fund, dubbed MotorOne Single Asset Continuation Fund, would be run by Quadrant managing partner Alex Eady and investment team members Andrew Gale and Ada Wu, according to details sent to investors.