Maui Capital appeals to the masses

A handful of fund-of-funds in Australia have already signed up to provide the remaining capital for Maui Capital Aqua Fund.

The pattern is similar to that of Maui's previous vehicle, the NZ$250 million Indigo Fund, which closed in mid-2008. Paul Chrystall, the private equity firm's managing director, attributes its unusual approach to fundraising to its unusual origins. In the late 1990s, Chrystall was looking for capital to support the privatization of a listed company. No New Zealand investment bank wanted anything to do with the deal so he went into partnership with Australian player JBWere.

"JBWere was in New Zealand as a retail banker providing wealth management services for high net worth individuals," Chrystall says. "The fund was raised by going up and down the country doing promotions to individual investors."

The first fund, raised in 2002, was the NZ$22 million Hauraki Private Equity No. 1 Fund. Another vehicle followed two years later, by which time JBWere was part-owned by Goldman Sachs. In 2008, Chrystall and the rest of the management team spun out to form Maui Capital. The name may have changed but the investor base remains largely the same. "It works well for us in New Zealand - our network is made of the fabric of the country's business community," Chrystall adds.

IR is not the nightmare one might assume it to be. Most of the high net worth individuals have participated in the previous funds and simply re-up their commitments. The larger institutions - big family offices, community trusts, electricity trusts, and so on - are similarly sticky.

However, Maui's approach is also a symptom of the shortage of large institutional investors in New Zealand. For years, the country had no long-term pension savings industry in the style of Australia's superannuation funds. Even though some such institutions have now emerged, they remain focused on public markets.

The Maui Capital Indigo Fund made its final investment in February with the acquisition of Australian fruit and vegetables supplier Freshmax from Wolseley Private Equity. In total, the fund committed capital to six companies, ranging from a NZ$13.3 million growth investment in Insulpo Manufacturing, an insulation materials manufacturer, to the NZ$54.1 million buyout of paper company BJ Ball Group.

Chrystall expects the Aqua Fund to follow the same strategy, although the contrasting macroeconomic climates in Asia and the West have an obvious impact. "These things matter to us because if we are looking for growth we will end up in with businesses that have exposure to the dynamism of Asia," he says.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Buyout
• Fundraising
• Maui Capital
• New Zealand
• Fundraising