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Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity has announced a set of new and significant offers that will the see the firm put several new vintages in market over the next year. The goal of this program is to increase the firm’s assets under management by more than 50 percent over the next two years.

“With such a low yield environment right now, investors are looking to private equity and real assets to add value to their portfolios,” Johnny El Hachem, CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity, says in an interview with Private Equity Strategies. “We feel confident about the environment right now and think our offerings will be competitive.”

The firm has launched its third vintage of the ERES funds. ERES III will focus on global growth investments and is targeting €250-300 million. The target represents a significant increase over its previous ERES I and ERES II vehicles which raised a total of €320 million. ERES was originally designed for the Rothschild Group family but was opened to other investors in 2006. El Hachem says that investments from the fund will be opportunistic, with a bent toward European companies.

ERES II is now fully invested, and El Hachem says that the performance of both vehicles has been solid enough that there is demand for a third.

“On a sector level we are looking at consumer and financials as two examples,” he says. “We see opportunity in the US, Africa, even the MENA region given its growing middle class.”

Three other vehicles are also in market - Rothschild Private Equity is raising a China fund investing in high-growth SMEs in niche sectors. With this fund the firm hopes to act as a bridge between Chinese entrepreneurs and French and European companies. The second fund - Ginkgo II focuses on sustainable upgrading of heavily polluted European sites primarily in France and nearby countries. Finally, the third vehicle - TIIC II invests in infrastructure through a pan-European company that invests in social and transport infrastructure sub-sectors including airports, ports, and railways.

Throughout 2016, a rather large and diverse group of other funds will also be brought to market by El Hachem and his team.

A new vintage from the BioDiversity fund group will launch in 2016 targeting investments in European Life Sciences companies at all stages of development. More specifically, the firm will be looking for companies that are active in therapeutic products, medical devices and molecular diagnostics. The first BioDiscovery fund was launched in 2000 in partnership with the Institut Pasteur and three other funds have since followed. The most recent vehicle - Fund IV closed in 2013.

A new Cabestan fund will also come to market providing development capital to small-cap companies in France. As with ERES, Cabestan takes an opportunistic approach - investing in all sectors of the economy.

The next vintage of Amethis will follow Cabestan and BioDiversity. Amethis is a responsible investment fund co-founded by Edmond de Rothschild in partnership with Luc Rigouzzo and Laurent Demey, which is exclusively dedicated to Africa. The fund invests in high-growth African companies in sectors determined to have the most demand in local economies. The fund also has strong social and environmental criteria for its investments.

Another Africa fund - Moringa - is dedicated to sustainable agroforestry projects in Africa and also Latin America.

Given the diverse array of programs targeting emerging markets, we asked El Hachem if he sees strength on the ground that the economic forecasts are missing. “The currency aspect of emerging markets cannot be ignored, but it depends on how you position yourself within these markets. We think there is a strong opportunity set here.”

In addition to positioning itself well, the firm also hired David Chamberlin to lead investor relations for private equity, and Jean-François Félix as Associate Director and Head of the ERES franchise.