Former Cerberus, BNP Paribas execs sets up private equity firm

Matthew Hansen will be joined by the former deputy chair of BNP Paribas’s business in Ukraine, in a new venture making investments in Europe’s finance sector

A former executive from buyout group Cerberus and the former deputy chair of BNP Paribas’s Ukrainian arm have teamed up to launch a new private equity business.

Matthew Hansen and Miroslav Boublik have set up Financial Services Capital Partners, which will make private equity investments in financial services companies in Europe.

Hansen was previously head of UK and Europe at Atlas Merchant Capital, the financials investor headed up by chief executive Bob Diamond. Prior to that he was a partner and head of European private equity for Cerberus in London.

Boublik started his career working at IBM and then had stints at several different organisations, including McKinsey, Alpha Bank, and BNP Paribas Ukraine where he served as deputy chair. Most recently he was managing partner of Home Credit International’s venture capital fund, based in Prague.

Martin Rauchenwald, chief executive officer of Austrian Anadi Bank and Rafael Marin, former CFO of Santander Asset Management, are also among co-founders of the business. Matthew Dougherty, previously at Panmure Gordon, has joined as principal.

The team is currently working on six deals, and have funding for five of them in place. While initially working on a deal by deal basis, Boublik told FN’s sister-publication Private Equity News that they will eventually look to raise a “blind pool” — in which investors would entrust capital to the firm to invest at its discretion.

In addition to taking majority stakes in financial services companies, the firm will also have a special allocation to take minority stakes in businesses that provide “enabling technologies”. These are services that can be used by finance businesses “to take them into the 21 century”, Boublik explained.

The team will look to spend anywhere from €10m to several €100m on financial services companies, while looking to deploy tens of millions of euros on enabling technologies.

Boublik added that the team is open to partnerships with other private equity groups and hedge funds for bigger deals, if required.

Boublik, who is based in the Czech Republic, said the firm is currently hiring senior associates in London, but will eventually also look to build a small branch in Prague.

The founders expect significant restructuring in Europe’s financial services sector, creating opportunities for a firm like theirs.

“What I found is there are very few private equity firms that would touch financial services because it’s a very specific sector. I believe it takes a specialist and there aren’t many of them in Europe. Even if you have a specialists at a generalist firm it’s difficult.”

Source: Financial News

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