The Audax Group unveiled a new strategy that is set to be active in the U.S. and Europe, allocating partnership equity solutions to private equity sponsors active in the middle market.
Kumber Husain and Daniel Green, who both joined Audax earlier this year from DWS Private Equity, have been charged with overseeing the new business — Audax Strategic Capital — that will partner with sponsors to drive organic growth and to pursue M&A opportunities.
The sector has been a fruitful one in the marketplace and for Audax it allows them to benefit from a two-decade-plus track record of effecting buy-and-build strategies and to be a value added partner to GPs seeking flexible capital.
“Audax Strategic Capital (ASC) complements our Private Equity and Private Debt businesses and enhances our ability to serve middle market companies with customized solutions across the capital structure,” said Geoffrey Rehnert, co-chief executive and co-founder of Audax Group. “ASC’s mid-hold strategy broadens our role as a capital partner of choice for middle and lower middle market companies and represents a natural extension of our firm’s history of collaboration with private equity sponsors.”
The new mid-hold strategy is designed to be “acyclical” and suitable for any market environment, according to Husain, managing director of ASC. Green added that the value of long-term patient capital is evident in the increased adoption of continuation vehicles.
“ASC’s strategy, however, is more intentional in that we’re specifically targeting opportunities that can leverage M&A to create new and advantageous inflection points,” said Green, managing director of ASC. “The versatility of ASC’s solution set should resonate with GPs pursuing additional upside across their portfolios.”
In connection with the new effort, Audax has opened an additional office in New York and established an office in London in order to enhance its presence in the European private equity community, officials said.
