FIDELITY EQUITY PARTNERS EXPANDS INVESTMENT TEAM AND OPENS NEW OFFICE IN LONDON
BOSTON, October 4, 2007 – Fidelity Equity Partners today announced the expansion of its investment team with the appointments of Sebastian McKinlay as partner and Stephen Findlay, Paul Lipson and John Chang as vice presidents. Fidelity Equity Partners, which invests in established, high-growth, midsized companies in North America and Europe, also has opened a new office in London, located at 10 Paternoster Square.
“Since our founding earlier this year, we have closed our first $500 million fund, assembled a team of seasoned private equity professionals and opened offices on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Rob Ketterson, managing partner for Fidelity Equity Partners. “Our growing team of industry veterans, combined with our committed capital structure and access to extensive global resources, positions us to provide an unparalleled range of expertise, financing and opportunities to midsized businesses seeking to fully capitalize on their technology advantage to drive long-term business performance.”
New Hires in London
McKinlay joins partner Nick Martin in overseeing Fidelity Equity Partners’ investments across the European market. McKinlay previously was a founding shareholder in two other London-based mid-market private equity firms: Promethean Investments, where he was the managing director, and Kleinwort Capital Limited, now August Equity LLP. His investment experience extends across a broad range of sectors, including technology, media, business services and consumer services.
Also based in London, Findlay is responsible for European investment activities. Prior to joining Fidelity Equity Partners, he was an Investment Manager at a European private equity fund focused on the middle market. Previously, he worked in Arthur Andersen LLP’s Strategy, Finance and Economic consulting group, in Deutsche Bank’s M&A lead advisory team and within Deloitte’s Corporate Finance practice.
New Hires in Boston
Lipson and Chang are based in Boston, joining Brooke Ablon, partner, who oversees the fund’s investments in North America.
Lipson is responsible for U.S. and Canadian business development activities and was previously with Great Hill Partners, where he focused on investments in the business services and media sectors. Before that, Lipson held business and corporate development positions at a number of media and for-profit education companies, where he was involved in acquisitions, capital raising efforts and a management buyout.
Chang works on deal execution for Fidelity Equity Partners, and will also lend his corporate finance expertise to help the fund’s portfolio companies on financial-related projects. He previously was with GE Commercial Finance, where his responsibilities included overseeing risk analysis and portfolio monitoring for Global Media & Communications, as well as managing private equity investments in targeted technology sectors. Earlier in his career, he was a member of the senior management team at GTE Internetworking and also worked for Pfizer’s Corporate Finance division and Digital Equipment Corporation.
A Focused Investment Strategy
Fidelity Equity Partners targets information-based and systems-driven companies operating in a broad spectrum of sectors. These include software, business, financial, consumer and healthcare services, as well as the information and communications systems industries themselves. Typically, these are midsized companies with enterprise values between US$50 million - $150 million (£25 million - £75 million, €40 million - €120 million) and growing organically at more than 10 percent per year.
“As we continue to expand our team, we will focus our investments on a relatively under-served segment of the leveraged buyout market where we see tremendous opportunity, specifically in established midsized companies that are experiencing rapid growth,” said Ketterson. “We seek to forge partnerships with management teams of the businesses in which we invest and believe our unique ability to deploy patient capital enables us to adopt a longer-term view than most private equity funds.”
About Fidelity Equity Partners
Fidelity Equity Partners is focused on high-growth, private equity investments in North America and Europe. The fund looks for opportunities where its partners’ individual expertise, culture of entrepreneurship, and access to unique resources such as the global family of Fidelity businesses can accelerate a company’s growth rate, profitability and overall market leadership. Fidelity Equity Partners raised its initial $500 million fund in 2007. For more information, visit www.fidelityequitypartners.com.