Ipside Group has signed a second LBO with Initiative & Finance, Bpifrance, GSO Capital and IDIA

February 2021 — Andera Partners has sold Ipside Group to Initiative & Finance, Bpifrance, Grand Sud-Ouest Capital (GSO Capital) and IDIA Capital Investissement.

Founded in 1980, Ipside was created by a series of mergers involving several industrial property firms: Lerner, Grynwald, Thébault, and more recently Ravina and Poupon. By bringing together firms with a different focus, Ipside gained a strong national presence. The Ipside Intellectual Property Law firm assists and advises international clients in the process of filing IP applications (patents, trademarks and models), and prosecuting and defending their intellectual rights both in France and abroad, notably in the EU. Based in Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nantes and Quimper, and including its branch offices in Las Vegas, US, and Shenzhen and Chengdu in China, Ipside has a team of more than 80 people.

Founded in 1984, Initiative & Finance is one of the leading players in France in the support and transfer of SMEs management buy-outs, owner buy-outs, management buy-ins and build-ups, and currently has 35 investments in its portfolio. With its latest fund Initiative & Finance FPCI III raised in December 2019 for US$250 million, Initiative & Finance has more than US$486 million of assets under management, excluding its MidCap Tomorrow fund currently being raised. Bpifrance finances companies, at every stage of their development, with credit, with a guarantee and with equity capital. Bpifrance assists them in their innovation and international projects. It also provides their export activity through a wide range of products, such as advisory services to universities, networking and acceleration programs for startups, SMEs and medium-sized companies. GSO Capital is an equity investment subsidiary of five Crédit Agricole Regional Banks in the south-west of France, and it manages approximately US$122 million in 65 active investments. Over the past 25 years, GSO Capital has supported over 200 regional companies. The firm invests its own funds in a minority role to support ambitious growth projects. IDIA Capital Investissement combines the minority stake private equity activities of the Crédit Agricole Group at a national level, supporting SMEs in all sectors.

Andera Partners is a leading private equity investment firm. The firm offers a full range of services, combining a culture of tailored solutions, stability, performance and innovation. Andera Partners serves customers worldwide.

Our role in the transaction

After having supported Ipside in its first LBO structuring in 2016, bringing in the investment fund Andera Partners, Oaklins’ team in France has now organized the exit of Andera and the structuring of a second LBO, as well as conducting a simultaneous buy-side process on two acquisition targets (Santarelli and Brevalex). Following a dual,track process involving PE funds, banks and strategic buyers in the IP sector, Oaklins was able to find the right investors for Ipside Group, while securing the bank financing for the transaction, thanks to a pool led by the group’s historical banks.