The impact of the crisis should approach 0

The President of LBO France, faced with the difficulties of several portfolio companies, returned for the first time on the crisis. The Fund, which manages 3.8 billion of equity has stood, insists it, even if he had to deplore Eryma report filing. Very active today on the market with buybacks Eurofarad and Materne, he says he is confident on the upcoming fundraisers.

You summer face to the reversal of a number of companies in difficulty, such as Terreal, Rocamat, Wheelabrator, Eryma or Consolis. Today, LBO France is it affected more than its competitors

The profession in General and we in particular have passed our test of resistance and globally successful: we are still here. Some have argued that the funds were accidents of economic history and that our justification, somewhere between the side market and industrial players, was not obvious. If this proved the profession would have been swept. Financial investors are a critical consideration of the market. The LBO companies can be undermined by artificial financial arrangements, but we forget to say that in these fixtures, the shareholders took care to safeguard the ability of companies to invest and that they were selected for their performance and their assets, technical, commercial or managerial, reflecting resistance above average and compensating their more fragile financial structure.

And LBO France

We have well crossed the crisis. We have to regret that a single accident on our 27 entries, despite much energy and many financial efforts, the filing of balance sheet Eryma, which we are obviously not particularly satisfied. In other cases of operational difficulties, the worst has been avoided. Terreal record 55 million operating income, and after a sharp fall of their Ebitda, Tiama exceeded its budget by 100, 12 million and Gravograph is strong stimulus to 7 million. Other restructuring, which focused on a third of the portfolio, are purely banking. The companies met no lack of cash and they have always faced their repayment obligations. In itself, it is not surprising that LBO whose financial structure is sitting on the debt were facing the respect of their covenants. It is the opposite that would have been surprising. And incidentally, there are a lot of LBO of 2007 who have benefited from Lite banking covenants and it does not intend to speak today. This does not mean that they are not hit by the crisis and that their capital is not significantly affected.

You get a balance. Is it to say that all the difficulties, such as those of Consolis, were unsuccessful

We are currently finalizing a solution. The crisis is behind us.

In what proportion have these difficulties affected your performance

We have quite good post-crisis performance. We will be able to serve our investors a return to start implementing double. The impact of the crisis should approach 0.5-0.8 point only. Of the approximately 2 billion that we have invested in operations LBO, we have had to re-inject now that EUR 50 million, which is quite reasonable.

Investors follow it it

We will start in fundraising for our vehicle SME mid-2011 and I am confident. Investors have two concerns today, that assuming their allowances and that they have a return on their past investments. But they include the parenthesis of the crisis and know that if the quality and the quantity returned, cases of significant size are not. The fundraising will be more difficult obviously. Some players will not necessarily find the attention of investors, to show more selective. We have demonstrated our strength. Premium today goes to the local funds, involved in the territories, a model that we have declined both on small and medium-sized enterprises, real estate and debt.

How do you consider the attitude of the banks and what are your relations with them BESV yesterday filed an appeal on the balance sheet of Eryma deposit.

There is no answer to your question. The interests of the lenders can be very different and very variable responses. In General, everything depends on the nature of the difficulties experienced by businesses. If they were operational, the survival of the activity and employment were involved and efforts converged to save the company. If they were financial, it is a negotiation between the financial partners of the acquisition holding that can take a long time but which has no real challenge for operational activity.

You are also part of the most active funds purchase today. Prices appear to be quite high. Is this a way to turn the page

We have acquired Eurofarad and Materne with a lever about 9 times Ebitda. But do not forget that we apply these multiple results of output of crisis and low cycle, thus far below their real value. Eurofarad reached approximately 25 million euro of Ebitda before the crisis. To which attention must be paid, are output forecast and they always appreciated in the light of the objectives of pre-crisis.

The judgment of the processes of selling cookies Poult and Medi-partners do not show that it is a factor blocking

We have sleep Medi-partners selling for a price, but availability of the debt problem. On Poult, we had to cope with the summer sharp recovery in the price of raw materials. But the objectives of the management to confirm. Certainly, we will re-open these assignments and others.