Hayfin is pleased to announce that it has acquired a minority stake through its Private Equity Solutions (PES) strategy in Novétude Group, a new European healthcare education platform in partnership with Charterhouse Capital Partners. The Group will be built around Novétude Santé, which Charterhouse has owned and grown since 2020. Charterhouse will retain a majority stake in the new platform. 

Underpinned by significant industry tailwinds, there is strong sentiment that the Novétude Group is well-positioned to benefit from the large and growing market of European students enrolled in health and welfare studies at private education institutions and an ageing population in Europe, which is expected to drive increased demand for healthcare professionals and services. 

Gonzalo Erroz, Managing Director and Co-head of the Private Equity Solutions team at Hayfin, said: “Joining forces with Charterhouse is an exciting development as we continue to invest in exceptional opportunities in the European healthcare education sector. We are proud to contribute to Novétude’s mission of fostering excellence, accessibility and responsibility in professional training, ensuring healthcare specialists are supported throughout every stage of their careers.”  

Severin de Mortemart, Managing Director of the Private Equity Solutions team at Hayfin, said: “We are delighted to partner with Charterhouse and to leverage our position as an investor to support Novétude Group through their next stage of development, with the aim of helping to build one of the leading healthcare education platforms in Europe.” 

As an active investor in European mid-market companies via single-asset GP-led solutions, Hayfin’s PES strategy benefits from strong alignment of interest with sponsors and management teams that already own, operate and know the target businesses intimately. 

Hayfin today announces that it has acted as the provider of senior-secured debt financing to support IK Partners’ acquisition of French fire safety company Eurofeu Group (“Eurofeu”) from CAPZA.

Founded in 1972, Eurofeu installs and maintains fire protection equipment, as well as fire protection systems, for business-to-business (B2B) clients predominantly. Eurofeu’s integrated manufacturing capabilities enable the company to provide a highly differentiated offering from its competitors. It benefits from strong product sale revenues as well as generating additional income from the maintenance of existing fire protection equipment and the supply of associated spare parts.

Eurofeu employs 1.850 workers across 42 agencies and two manufacturing sites, serving approximately 160,000 B2B clients across France.

Alban Senlis, Head of Hayfin Private Credit in France, commented: “We are delighted to have partnered with the Eurofeu management team and prominent private equity sponsor IK Partners to underwrite this debt financing, providing the flexibility, certainty and speed of execution to enable this significant acquisition. We look forward to working closely with IK Partners and Eurofeu throughout the next chapter of the company’s growth journey.”

The debt financing brings the firm’s total investment activity in France through its Direct Lending strategy to c. €3 billion deployed across more than 20 transactions in the past 5 years.