Groupama AM and Tikehau Capital have joined to create the Groupama Tikehau Diversified Debt Fund (GTDDF). This new fund has the European Investment Fund (EIF) as an anchor investor and will help finance European SMEs but mainly French ones, according to a release.
The GTDDF is said to be the first fund co-designed by two asset management companies with the aim of supporting French and European SMEs in their international development. The fund will offer long-term credit solutions, including bonds, euro PP or unitranche debt, for individual amounts. Investments will be made between € 1 million and € 10 million.
The fund, with a 12 year maturity, has just executed its first closing for a total of € 115 million.
Guillaume Arnaud, CEO of Tikehau IM said the launch of the fund marks the culmination of their work with the teams of Groupama AM and the EIF to offer targeted financing solutions adapted to individual companies.
“The project arose from an initiative, called “MEDEF investment accelerator”, to develop a financing platform dedicated to SMEs and SOHOs,” said Jean-Marie Catala, Deputy CEO of Groupama AM. “It aims to encourage institutional investors (insurance companies, mutual funds and others) to devote a portion of their investments to SMEs.”
Pier Luigi Gilibert, Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund, said the fund is representative of EIF’s strategy of strengthening ties between institutional investors and the growth of SMEs in Europe.
“This fund will drive job creation, growth and innovation opportunities in France. In selecting strategies in line with this objective, we intend to facilitate private fundraising for innovative SMEs that support job creations.”
A key player in France, with total assets under management of around € 103 billion, Groupama Asset Management is now ranked 9th in the list of top French asset management companies.
