They have no ten-year fund terms to meet and no fees to justify, yet they operate with the same sophistication as major funds. Family offices are \u201cthe new institutional force\u201d in private markets, at least according to the title of a panel held on September 10 at IPEM Global 2026 in Paris. Moderated by Grace Reyes, founder and CEO of The Investment Diversity Exchange (TIDE), the panel brought together two investors with very different backgrounds. On one side was Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric de M\u00e9vius, executive chairman and managing partner of Planet First Partners and a scion of one of the families behind AB InBev. On the other was Sascha Klamp, senior investment advisor at Gemini, the family office of a major Egyptian industrial family. The discussion painted a picture of patient investors increasingly drawn to direct investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
De M\u00e9vius begins with his family\u2019s origins. His family has been in the beer business for four centuries and, through a series of mergers and acquisitions that began in the late 1980s, helped build the world\u2019s largest brewer, which today produces roughly one in every four beers consumed globally. Success, however, came with a downside: an overly concentrated fortune. This led, in the mid-1990s, to the creation of Verlinvest, the family\u2019s first investment vehicle. Today, alongside its equity holdings, the family has adopted a multi-asset strategy. The goal, he explains, is to professionalize its approach and move closer to the model of endowments, the investment funds of major American universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What distinguishes European capital from American capital? For De M\u00e9vius, the answer can be seen in valuations, which are lower in Europe across all equity segments. The key issue is where savings end up: in Europe, they are primarily directed towards bonds and credit, while in the United States around 55% flows into the stock market. Without a deeper European equity market, he warns, Brussels\u2019 efforts to finance growth will achieve little. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Klamp starts from a different question: what is our money doing to create jobs in the real economy? According to the European estimates he cites, around \u20ac1.4 trillion remains sitting in deposits without reaching small and medium-sized businesses. For the family he advises, this is not an abstract issue: companies within the group employ around 400,000 people worldwide. Creating jobs, he explains, is what drives the family, now in its third generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The concrete response was to acquire a bank and turn it into a specialized lending platform: no retail clients, no private banking, just loans to SMEs ranging from \u20ac1 million to \u20ac5 million, preferably secured by assets. Small businesses, Klamp observes, support a large share of employment across Europe but remain underserved: growth capital and venture debt are in short supply, while traditional banks are reluctant to finance companies without revenues or demand excessive guarantees from founders. The target is to reach \u20ac10 billion in lending, in a potential market that Klamp estimates at \u20ac100 billion. It is a 20- to 50-year project, he acknowledges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what sets them apart from funds? Klamp\u2019s family office typically takes controlling stakes and assumes board-level governance responsibilities: this is its way of managing risk. But it also acts as an operating partner, drawing on the expertise of the group\u2019s many businesses while working alongside external advisors to validate business plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
De M\u00e9vius adds a useful distinction: there is a difference between family offices backed by an active industrial business and those created after the sale of the family company, following what is known as a liquidity event. The former can provide portfolio companies with industry knowledge, relationships and execution capabilities; the latter have to build these resources from scratch and consequently tend to look more like traditional funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where the deal that got the panel talking comes in. The closing, Klamp explains, had taken place just one day earlier, with the family playing a leading role: Porsche sold its stake in Bugatti Rimac for around \u20ac1 billion to a consortium led by Hof Capital, the investment firm co-founded by Onsi Sawiris, son of Naguib Sawiris. It was not a trophy asset to be displayed, Klamp stresses, but an asset under pressure, sold by a group in need of liquidity amid turmoil in the automotive sector. More than a year was required to complete the deal, with much of the work focused on legal matters, starting with intellectual property. During lengthy negotiations with Porsche and Volkswagen executives, the goal was to obtain \u201cthe key, not just the house.\u201d The bet is on the brand\u2019s heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
De M\u00e9vius responds with Vita Coco, one of Verlinvest\u2019s best-known investments. The brand was right and the product compelling, but unlocking value required something else: securing exclusive, long-term supply agreements around the world, from Brazil to the Philippines. Coconut water, he recalls, had previously been simply discarded. It became a defensive moat \u2013 a hard-to-replicate competitive advantage that the family looks for in every investment. It can be a brand, a recipe or control over the supply chain. The advantage of family offices, he adds, is that they can stay invested for longer. In the case of Vita Coco, the investment lasted twelve years, with the company going public halfway through the journey. Part of the stake was retained, and the value of the investment is now estimated at several billion. The same principle guides Planet First Partners, the growth equity platform he founded in 2020: companies with strong, defensible intellectual property. Among its investments are three or four companies involved in quantum computing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For De M\u00e9vius, the future lies in deals structured among families \u2013 so-called club deals. An increasing number of family offices are prepared to act as lead investors, taking responsibility for managing other people\u2019s capital without charging fees, knowing that the next deal will probably involve the same people in a different configuration. Klamp agrees, but with a caveat. Unlike the relationship between fund managers and investors, which is governed by established agreements negotiated by third parties, bilateral co-investments between families still lack a legal and governance infrastructure. Between families, there are no polished presentations \u2013 only ideas and mutual trust. He jokes with his fellow panelist that he would have happily sold half of the Bugatti stake, but neither of them called the other. Once this issue is resolved, he predicts, significant volumes of capital will be unlocked and competition among managers will become fiercer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two investors also differ when it comes to talent. De M\u00e9vius draws from the same talent pool as private equity: sophisticated professionals with expertise in the sectors where the family invests directly, capable of accelerating growth while containing risk. His advice to young people is to spend their free time between internships working on the ground, in order to become \u201cstreet smart.\u201d Klamp, by contrast, puts the emphasis on curiosity. Family offices need people who are always willing to ask the next question and to say, \u201cI disagree\u201d \u2013 the only way, he argues, to compete with artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final question is straightforward: are family offices complementary to, or competitors of, institutional investors? Complementary, both agree, but with some important distinctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Klamp points to a difference in investment horizons: funds typically think in terms of ten years, while his family looks beyond 25 years. De M\u00e9vius, meanwhile, expects the share of family wealth allocated to funds to decline as families increasingly pursue direct investments. The allocation could, he suggests, fall from 20% of assets to 10%. \u201cCompletely complementary,\u201d he concludes. At least for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At IPEM Global 2026, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric de M\u00e9vius (Planet First Partners) and Sascha Klamp (Gemini Family Office) explain how major family are becoming institutional investors in their own right. Along the way: Bugatti, coconut water and co-investments that are still struggling to take off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88501,"featured_media":149731,"template":"","categories":[3779],"tags":[4381,3769,3782],"collana-video":[],"class_list":["post-149599","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-private-market-istituzionali","tag-direct-investments","tag-family-office","tag-private-markets"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n