Private Debt

The Private Debt team offers highly customized debt financing, covering the entire capital structure of Italian small and mid-sized enterprises.

More in detail, the team focuses on medium-long term investments in senior unitranche bonds, HoldCo PIKs and, to a lower extent, equity, with the aim of supporting the development of SMEs, mainly in the context of:

• Mergers and acquisitions
• Buy-and-build projects
• Succession issues
• Diversification of funding sources
• Geographical expansion and/or diversification of the product range

The investment strategy is focused on providing financing to leading private equity players, with the aim of supporting LBO transactions targeting SMEs based in Italy, DACH area and Spain. Moreover, starting from 2020, funds managed by EQUITA Capital SGR are classified as Article 8 pursuant to the SFDR.

Targets are typically characterized by an outstanding competitive position in their reference market, strong vocation for exports, defendable leadership position in the domestic market and high cash generation capability.

The investment strategy excludes firms operating in non-ethical sectors, financial firms, real estate firms, start-ups or early stage firms and firms under insolvency procedures.

Private debt funds are closed-ended AIF reserved to institutional and professional clients. For more information about the funds, please write to equitacapitalsgr@equita.eu.

The team is one of the largest and experienced in Italy, and it has distinguished since inception for its professionalism, contributing significantly to the development of private debt industry in Italy.

Since its establishment in 2016, the Private Debt team has been awarded during the Financecommunity Awards in 2018, 2021 and 2023 as "Team of the Year". EQUITA 

Moreover, EQUITA was awarded at the Private Debt Award in 2020 for its investment in Passione Unghie (in the category “Operazione conclusa – Leveraged buyout/Operazioni straordinarie”) and in 2021 for its investment in Crippa (category “Operazione conclusa – Leveraged buyout/Operazioni straordinarie”).