Buysse & Partners

Buysse & Partners

Buysse & Partners was established in Antwerp in 2008 by Managing Partner Frank Buysse. The firm operates as a multi-family office and independent investment house, aggregating capital from a network of Belgian families and entrepreneurs. Its founding principle is alignment: every member of the Buysse & Partners team invests personally in the vehicles it manages. The firm’s strategy rests on two pillars — private equity and real estate. On the private equity side, Buysse & Partners pursues direct buyout investments in mature, profitable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) headquartered in Belgium with clear growth potential. Confirmed portfolio companies include forklift distributor Mabo Group and intellectual property firm Brantsandpatents (which merged with Merk-Echt and Brndpwr). The firm has co-invested alongside institutions including PMV, LRM Capital, SmartFin Capital, and Velocity Capital in Ancoa Software, and with Korys, Quest for Growth, and Capricorn Partners in biotech spin-off BlueBee. Its real estate strategy is divided into two dedicated funds: an iconic real estate fund targeting architectural landmarks in the Benelux, and a residential fund focused on consolidating the private rental market in Belgian city centers. Notable properties include Amsterdam’s Insinger building on the Herengracht, Rotterdam’s Las Palmas building, and the CBR building in Brussels. The firm also operates as an engaged landlord; tenants in its Antwerp BP Tower include Delen Private Bank, BNP Paribas Wealth Management, and Waterland Private Equity. Buysse & Partners maintains a lean structure anchored in Antwerp with a network of investment partners across Belgium and the Netherlands. The firm is a member of Private Capital Belgium, and Partner Dimitri Herbosch is active in the SFO Alliance, a global peer network for single-family offices, indicating an outward-facing posture despite its local investment focus. In 2024, the firm raised over €100 million in fresh capital to further professionalize the residential rental market. Another recent transaction saw the sale of the Zilveren Toren in The Hague to the Dutch Central Government Real Estate Agency (Rijksvastgoedbedrijf), demonstrating realized exits from its iconic property fund. The firm’s structural differentiator is its dual alignment mechanism. Unlike standard commingled funds, Buysse & Partners requires its full team to co-invest personal capital into every deal, and pools capital from entrepreneur-investors who often bring operational expertise to portfolio companies. The cross-pollination between its real estate and private equity teams — managing buildings like businesses and advising portfolio companies on their own property strategies — creates a feedback loop that generic investment houses in the region lack.