Investing into structural scarcity in Europe’s lower mid‑market

The right GPs and deals are not obvious from the outside.

Europe isn’t one market, it’s dozens: a fragmented, local and relationship‑led landscape spanning 20+ official languages, 40+ countries, 30+ legal jurisdictions and 25+ tax systems. Within this complexity, Europe holds the deepest universe of large private companies of any region: 96% of European companies with $100m+ annual revenues are privately held rather than listed.

Lower mid‑market deal flow is local, less intermediated and less broadly marketed. In this environment, it is important to know which managers are likely to generate attractive co‑investments before they become widely visible.

The best co‑investment deals go to trusted LP partners.

The best deals are competitive, and allocation depends on relevance, reliability and usefulness to the GP, especially in relationship‑led lower mid‑market deals.

Lower leverage, constrained distributions and fundraising challenges are also raising the execution bar. GPs increasingly need co‑investors who can work alongside them and support co‑underwriting, not just provide capital.

Access to deal flow is not the same as performance.

Funds below $5bn have outperformed larger funds, but the gap between median and top quartile is material: +266bps at median and +975bps at top quartile.

There is asset‑quality dispersion, with small and mid‑market companies showing a higher growth rate than larger companies, yet cash conversion, resilience and sector quality vary materially.

Entry‑point discipline is also essential. Smaller deals are priced at 9.4–10.2x EV/EBITDA versus 11.8–13.9x for larger deals, but valuation, leverage and exit route determine whether that advantage converts into returns.

Senior judgement and relationship continuity.

Co‑investment activities are led by Colin Burrow, Karin Hyland, Alistair Watson and Haresh Vazirani, a leadership team that has worked together for 18+ years and is supported by a broader senior team with multi‑cycle experience.

40+ private equity investment professionals, GPMS‑wide Investment Committee input, key‑person protections and senior compliance oversight support disciplined execution.

The integrated infrastructure that creates and supports access.

$16.9bn of GPMS AUM within $62bn total Patria AUM. Primaries, secondaries and co‑investments reinforce each other, creating GP visibility, proprietary comparison points and better diligence.

Institutional oversight at every stage.

We have a rigorous oversight process. Every deal is tested by an independent Challenger, a senior team member outside the transaction who reviews the diligence and independently assesses the opportunity, and approval requires the Investment Committee on a unanimous‑minus‑one basis.

This oversight underpins the repeatable discipline, from triage to monitoring, set out below.