Apera Asset Management
A London-headquartered pan-European private debt manager providing senior secured unitranche to private-equity-backed mid-market companies.
What they do
Apera is a direct lender that writes senior secured, mostly unitranche financings for lower- and mid-market companies across Western Europe (DACH, the UK, Nordics, France and Benelux). It backs businesses with strong cash generation, defensible market positions and capable management, predominantly those owned by private equity sponsors. Publicly it targets investments of roughly EUR 15m to EUR 100m and runs both a unitranche and a senior strategy. Apera closed its third private debt fund in April 2025 at around EUR 2.9bn including related vehicles and leverage, and in 2025 agreed to be majority-acquired by Franklin Templeton.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Apera is a credible counterparty at the top end of a Solon raise — call it the £12m-and-up tranche of a sponsor-backed unitranche or acquisition financing where a single lender providing the whole senior-secured quantum is attractive. Its natural home is the PE-owned business: management-buyout, bolt-on M&A, or a sponsor recapitalisation where speed, certainty and a one-stop debt package matter more than the keenest price. For a CFO running an LBO or buy-and-build with an institutional equity holder, Apera offers scale, pan-European reach and a long track record.
Where they are not the fit
Apera is not the lender for the lower half of Solon's £3–15m band. Its stated floor of roughly EUR 15m sits at or above the top of that range, so a sub-£10m facility is below where it typically engages. It is also a sponsor-oriented lender: founder- or family-owned companies raising debt without a private equity backer are off its usual fairway, as are working-capital, asset-based or revolving needs — its product is event-driven, cash-flow term debt, not a flexible operating line.
On the record
Apera Asset Management LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 771080.
Registered as a UK limited liability partnership, company number OC413428, incorporated 26 August 2016; registered office 33 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0PW; previously named Apera Capital UK LLP until 28 February 2019.
Apera provides senior secured private capital solutions, focused on unitranche financings, to lower mid-market companies in Western Europe (DACH, UK, Nordics, France, Benelux).
Apera typically targets investments in the range of approximately EUR 15m to EUR 100m, emphasising businesses with downside resilience, strong market positioning and growth prospects.
Apera closed its third private debt fund in April 2025 with total commitments of around EUR 2.9bn including related vehicles and leverage, surpassing its hard cap and roughly doubling the prior fund.
In 2025 Franklin Resources (Franklin Templeton) agreed to acquire a majority interest in Apera, a manager with AUM exceeding EUR 5bn, to expand its European direct-lending platform in the lower middle market.
The FCA has published a clone-firm warning for an entity impersonating Apera Asset Management; the genuine firm is verifiable on the FCA register under FRN 771080.
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.