AGEFI: Sienna IM’s new defense fund attracts French mutual insurance company
Sienna IM hopes to raise between 500 and one billion euros for SMEs and mid-caps in the defense sector.
Published on March 14, 2025, at 10:14 a.m. – Updated on March 14, 2025, at 4:57 p.m.
Sienna Investment Managers is ahead of “the political, regulatory or legislative decision” to mobilize private investors towards the defense sector. It is launching a private debt fund dedicated to European SMEs and mid-caps in the defense ecosystem.
La France Mutualiste, an individual savings mutual that last year joined the social protection group Malakoff Humanis (to which Sienna IM is linked), is one of the first investors, the manager says. It expects to raise between 500 million and one billion euros from investors in France and Europe.
Its private debt financing strategy, called Sienna Hephaestus1, in reference to the blacksmith god of Olympus, aims to support SMEs and mid-caps in the defense industrial and technological base (DITB) in the renewal of their production tools, the acceleration of manufacturing or external or organic growth projects, with a strong focus on France, Italy and Germany.
“As essential links in the fragmented European defense supply chain, the subcontractors of the major BITD2 industrial groups face significant financing needs in order to keep pace with the ramp-up,” explains Sienna IM.
Classified as an Article 8 fund under the SFDR, the fund will be able to “incorporate incentives for borrowers based on their actions focused on sustainable development”. The fund will not support activities prohibited by international treaties signed by France and Italy.
This new strategy is part of Sienna IM’s approach to financing mid-market companies.