Germany- German mid-market private equity firm Finatem has appointed Robert Hennigs as partner and managing director of the firm’s second portfolio, which has recently has its first closing with commitments of €74m.

Hennigs joins the firm from DZ Equity Partner, the private equity arm of DZ Bank, where he was also a managing director and the recruitment will allow a closer working arrangement between the two firms.

Hennigs told IPE he would be in charge of that Finatem’s second fund, Finatem 2. The target for the second portfolio is in the region of €125-150m,

The first fund, Finatem 1, has had a closing with commitments of €60m.

Chris Ivey of Almeida Capital, which advises Finatem, told IPE the money has predominantly come from institutional investors from Germany, Austria and France, but he said the rest could also come from UK investors.

Ivey said Finatem would do an intermediate closing in the autumn and a final one in 2005.

Hennigs, who has over 10 years experience in the German mid-cap private equity business, was responsible for DZ Equity Partner's co-investment in Finatem’s first portfolio.

He was also in charge of the development of the “private equity deal flow” from DZ Bank's network of over 1000 co-operative banks.

“At Finatem, he will continue to develop this pipeline of proprietary deal flow”, the firm said in a statement.

“DZ Bank has agreed to give Finatem the first right of refusal on opportunities arising from the DZ co-operative banking network, that meet Finatem's investment strategy” Finatem also said.

Christophe Hemmerle, managing director and founding partner of Finatem, said he was “ delighted” with the appointment.

“His relationships with DZ's co-operative banks should be a real asset” he said.

Finatem, targets investments in traditional businesses with an enterprise value of €25m and €125m.

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