EQT, based in Stockholm, told investors this morning that it is making an EBITDA margin of 55-65% on its current investments.
But CEO Christian Sinding (pictured) did not give any details about the latest fund, EQT IX, which the company announced last week. “There are string marketing rules” about fundraising “so we cannot provide details”, he said on an investor call this morning. However, investors were told that the group will take “six to seven months” to complete the fund-raising on EQT IX.
The company said it had already allocated 70-75% of one of the 2018 funds, EQT Infrastructure IV, which is worth €9.1 billion, and 60-65% of the other, EQT VIII, which is worth €10.91 billion.
The target size for the EQT IX fund has been set at €14.75 billion.
EQT is working with Marc Ganzi’s US-based Digital Colony group to buy Zayo for a total of over $14 billion. This is an agreed deal that is expected to be completed in the first half of this year.
The group, whose employees manage total investments under management worth €39.9 billion, will announce its results for the full fiscal year on 12 February, Sinding said this morning.
EQT invested €11.9 billion in 2019 and raised €8 billion by exiting previous investments. Last year’s figures showed a considerable rise on 2018, when EQT invested €8.6 billion and raised €5.1 billion in exits.
EQT is prominent in the telecoms and data centre industry – last year it was reported to be wanting to buy EdgeConneX for $2.5 billion – but its investments are across a wide range of projects. Sinding highlighted Metlifecare, a New Zealand company that builds retirement villages.
The staff of EQT has risen rapidly over the past two years, from 511 at the end of 2017 to 601 a year ago and 706 at the end of 2019.
