![\"Bert](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1000x600_EQT_Bert-Janssens-716x430.jpg\" "\\"1000x600_EQT_Bert")
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European private equity giant EQT<\/a> has its sights set on Europe as the momentum for investing in the region ramps up amid geopolitical and macro developments.<\/p>\n \u201cPositive momentum on the policy side as well as on the government side, like the Draghi report, is a realisation that Europe faces a competitiveness issue today\u2026 and there are certain things private capital can do to solve that,\u201d Bert Janssens, co-head of private capital for Europe and North America at EQT, told Private Equity International, during an interview at the firm\u2019s capital markets day in London last week.<\/p>\n Janssens added that the impact of US tariffs and trade tensions means investors have to diversify more and have more exposure to the euro.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very bullish on Europe as a whole because of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n European businesses account for about 65 percent of the firm\u2019s portfolio, representing half of total capital invested across strategies, and of which more than 50 percent are venture and growth companies. North American companies make up about 35 percent and Asia-Pacific businesses 15 percent, according to materials presented by the firm.<\/p>\n Asked about the attractiveness of investing in European defence assets, Janssens noted that the firm is still \u201ctrying to figure out where they sit on the spectrum\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of our investors are worried about that. Other investors are very forward-leaning on that, saying that they want to invest in defence-related funds\u2026 There\u2019s definitely a bit of knee-jerk reactions to both sides. We have historically not been active in that market, but it\u2019s always good to re-debate this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Janssens stressed that EQT will not invest in weapons or ammunition. The broader conversation around resilience in Europe extends to many areas including cybersecurity and energy, areas which the firm has invested in, he added.<\/p>\n The US remains an attractive and strategic market for the firm, he said. \u201c[The US] has a deep pool of interesting companies. We\u2019re extremely selective in US as a firm and as a strategy. We there have a sniper-shot approach that we follow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added that the market has been \u201ca very accretive part\u201d to EQT\u2019s business, although the firm has a rule to avoid businesses that are heavily regulated or exposed to macro and political dynamics.<\/p>\n Across the firm\u2019s 250 portfolio companies in Europe and North America, EQT said it had \u201cno or limited exposure to manufacturing and trading of physical goods\u201d. A potential global recession and higher inflation would, however, have second- and third-order impacts on its portfolio, the firm noted in its latest quarterly update.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, Janssens noted that the firm\u2019s private capital portfolio will continue to be Europe-dominated. \u201cI don\u2019t think our split between Europe and US is going to change in the near future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n EQT \u2013 the world\u2019s third-largest PE firm by capital raised over the past five years, according to the latest\u00a0PEI 300<\/a>\u00a0ranking \u2013 has global PE strategies across sectors including technology, healthcare and life sciences. It is deploying its \u20ac22 billion flagship fund EQT X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Janssens, who overseas a number of the firm\u2019s strategies including its flagship buyout fund series, venture, life sciences and its long-hold future fund, noted that in the current environment, selling is more important than buying.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not in the business of buying businesses. We\u2019re in the investment business, which means you buy and you sell\u2026 We\u2019ve got liquidity to invest. There are a lot of interesting companies that have not been finding their way to exits,\u201d Janssens said. \u201cWe see that as a phenomenal opportunity to keep hunting and adding portfolio companies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European private equity giant EQT has its sights set on Europe as the momentum for investing in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,163],"class_list":{"0":"post-141539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-front-page"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114591447448585100","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}