Investment strategy
Experience and outlook
Doughty Hanson & Co FZE is an active investment company and the direct successor to the Doughty Hanson companies, including DH Private Equity Partners. The business, name, brand and corporate history were transferred in full through a comprehensive asset deal. Today, the company carries this experience forward with a long-term focus on private markets and emerging opportunities.
DH has a highly selective investment process to identify and acquire controlling equity stakes in market-leading businesses with strong growth prospects. These businesses typically have enterprise values between €200m – €600m and are headquartered in Northern Europe.
DH’s investment strategy is to only invest in businesses where it can add value to the investment. This is a key pillar of how DH operates, with bespoke value creation plans put in place for each and every investment, and focus given to the make-up and potential impact of this right from the time the team starts evaluating a potential investment.
Investment philosophy
This is characterised by the following distinguishing characteristics:
- Targeting family-owned businesses, corporate carve-outs and portfolio companies of smaller private equity funds;
- Controlling stakes;
- Strategy focused on earnings growth;
- Value enhancement;
- Conservative use of leverage; and
- Responsible investing.
Deal selection criteria
DH continues to pursue the same highly selective investment policy, focusing on businesses that display most or all of the following characteristics:
- Market-leading positions with a competitive advantage based on strong branding, product, geographic or cost leadership and barriers to entry;
- Potential to grow the value of the business within the investment period through active ownership;
- Predictable, stable cash flows;
- Strong management teams willing to invest alongside the Fund;
- Addressing growing and often underserved markets through a compelling strategy;
- Established products or operations, which are resilient to economic and market cycles;
- End markets with broad geographic footprints, including exposure to high growth or emerging markets; and
- Enterprise value between €200m and €600m.