Waterland Private Equity is pleased to announce the formal opening of the new Dublin office.
The opening is Waterland’s 9th office and takes place on the back of the recent completion of Waterland’s first Irish platform investment, SilverStream Healthcare Group, a provider of residential care for the elderly catering for 357 residents across 7 care homes in the greater Dublin Area. The initial SilverStream investment was led by the Waterland Team in Manchester.

Several of Waterland’s portfolio companies such as Sarens, Amino Labs, Otravo and Cawood Scientific have already been active in Ireland for quite some time or even placed direct investments into the Irish market in the past five years. Examples are Ireland’s largest textile recycling group, Cookstown Textile Recycling (by Textile Recycling International, UK) in 2018, a Dublin based digital agency, Webfactory (Dept, Netherlands) in 2017 and the largest independent distributor of technical insulation materials in Ireland, T.I.D.L. (Ipcom NV, Belgium) in 2016.

The Irish office marks Waterland’s presence in an 8th country across Europe. As Waterland continues to broadens its geographic reach, local teams remain an essential part of Waterland’s strategy. Paul Higgins, a Dublin native and currently Investment Associate in the Manchester team, will relocate to Dublin in 2020.

Below please find an article on the new opening that was recently published in the Irish Business Post newspaper:

Waterland, the €6 billion portfolio Dutch private equity house, is opening a Dublin office as it seeks to deepen its investment here #

Waterland, the €6 billion portfolio Dutch private equity house, is opening a Dublin office as it seeks to deepen its investment here.

The company is targeting Irish firms looking towards Europe for growth to hedge against Brexit, and is also planning to help its Irish nursing home investment, Meath operator Silver Stream, ramp up its growth plans.

“The size and the way that the Irish economy is developing very much merits a Waterland team here,” said managing partner Hans Scheepers.

“The decision is partly influenced by the timing of Brexit. Of course, the UK is the largest trading partner for Ireland, but looking from a currency perspective, it makes sense for businesses here to be looking at Europe and to have local teams there to work alongside the entrepreneur with that international expansion strategy. It’s something that has resonated quite well so far.

“We’re looking at opportunities to double Silver Stream in size in the hopefully not too distant future, not only in an acquisitive way but also through expanding the current homes with potentially new builds as well.”

The 360-bed group is run by corporate financier Kevin Beary, who has been involved in a number of care home ventures in recent years.
Waterland has also invested in Dublin-based digital agency Webfactory and Antrim business Textile Recycling International.

It is seeking to hire a lead for the Dublin office and two more executives, and Paul Higgins, who was formerly based at its Manchester office, will relocate here.

Waterland takes controlling stakes in profitable businesses with earnings between €5 million and €20 million before interest and tax. Some 85 per cent of its investments are done off-market.

“We find those companies ourselves outside of a broader auction process,” Scheepers said. “I would consider that our sweet spot is where we can really help these companies accelerate and become bigger businesses.”

Waterland’s average investment holding period is six years, but can be beyond ten.

Ireland is attractive to it partly due to the SME structure here, which has similarities to the Dutch and Belgian markets in the number and profile of its family businesses, Scheepers said.

Waterland is interested in businesses connected with trends in ageing populations, outsourcing and efficiency, sustainability, and the leisure industry, he said.

Active for 20 years, it has invested in more than 500 companies in 80 sectors to date. It has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Poland.