Dutch private equity firm NPM Capital has not felt the effects of the economic slowdown yet and said if the current economic climate persists it may find cheap acquisitions next year, its managing director said.
One immediate buying opportunity may be the 21.5 percent stake in Dutch privately held dredging company Van Oord, which building and construction company BAM has put up for sale.
Asked whether NPM Capital, which already owns 27.5 percent of Van Oord, would buy, NPM Capital Managing Director Jan Willem Baud told Reuters: "Maybe, maybe not. It is a subject of internal discussions at the moment. We don't know yet."
The Van Oord family owns 51 percent of the dredging company, and any deal between NPM and BAM would include the Van Oords, Baud added.
The private equity firm, which said at the end of 2007 its portfolio was valued at 824 million euros ($1.2 billion), typically targets smaller Dutch companies valued at between 70 and 150 million euros. "At the moment we don't feel anything of the economic downturn in our portfolio," Baud said, adding that his portfolio yielded more than 15 to 20 percent annually.
"What we currently see in our part of Dutch private equity market is that supply and demand haven't found each other yet. The companies we look at are still somewhat expensive," he said, adding this may change if the economy weakens further.
"An ongoing economic slowdown may result in a better buying environment for us, as management of companies will be willing to sell their companies cheaper." NPM's only shareholder is privately held by the family-held SHV Holdings, which was founded in 1896 through the merger of coal trading companies. Steenkolen Handels Vereeniging, owned by the Fentener van Vlissingen family, is active in oil and gas investments as well as in LPG trade and distribution and is the owner of cash and carry wholesale chain Makro.