Pacific Avenue Capital Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in Manhattan Beach, will open its first international office in Paris, to be led by Xavier Lambert.

Pacific specializes in corporate divestitures and carve-outs in the middle market. Chris Sznewajs, founder and managing partner, views this office as an avenue to better serve the firm’s existing portfolio companies with international presences as well as attracting new ones.

Looking at Pacific’s first fund, which closed in May 2023, more than 60% of the businesses in its portfolio had operations outside the U.S., yet Sznewajs said there’s room for more.

“What we noticed at Pacific was our win rate on transactions where there was an international component was lower than our win rate on deals specifically focused in North America… so this allows us to hopefully win at a higher rate,” Sznewajs said.

This includes providing services to large multinational companies based in Europe that are spinning off divisions in the United States or vice versa.

Lambert, who worked in this space for the last 12 years as a principal for OpenGate Capital’s Paris office, emphasized the importance of local expertise.

“Where you have, for instance, a U.S. corporate seller selling a European business, you need to navigate through the local specificities,” Lambert said “… Carve-outs are complex, so you need to really deep dive into that level of complexity. And in that regard, it is very important to have people on the ground that understand the local dynamics.”

Having a team operating in the same time zone as international entities and speaking the same languages betters the client experience, Sznewajs said.

Lambert aims to have a built out European team by June, looking for experts in complex transactions.

Pacific typically seeks out businesses with an enterprise value of $100 million to $500 million where the team sees “significant upside potential,” Sznewajs said.