Investment strategy

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.