Pierre Sáenz, Investment Director

Pierre has over 16 years of private equity experience and has been involved in several of the most successful investments in the Spanish market. Between 2001 and 2009, Pierre was a Partner of Impala Capital Partners a middle market private equity fund (€240m) founded and sponsored by Ana Patricia Botín. While at Impala he was member of the Investment Committee, member of the Board of Directors and has been involved in all of Impala`s investments.

Before joining Impala, Pierre was an Associate Investment Director of Vista Capital, Spain's leading private equity firm, founded by Banco Santander and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Pierre was in charge of leading and developing the Superdiplo transaction, a 50/50 venture between Vista and Charterhouse. This transaction involved the consolidation of 35 regional supermarket chains into a single company that was eventually listed on the Spanish stock exchange in 1998 and sold to Ahold N.V. in 2000. Superdiplo was the most profitable private equity transaction yet carried out in Spain, with capital gains in excess of €700 million.

Pierre Saenz began his career as an investment analyst with the Spanish private equity firm Mercapital Servicios Financieros in 1995. While at Mercapital he was involved in all stages of the due diligence process for a number of investments (Mecalux, Occidental Hoteles, OCP/ACS), as well as working on the preparation and follow-up of investee Company business plans such as Barón de Ley, Frida, J. García Carrión, ACS.

He holds degrees in Economics and Business Studies from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (Icade) and the École Supérieure de Commerce de Reims.