Bregal Investments is the private equity investment business of COFRA Holding AG, a European holding company for a privately-owned group of companies which also include C&A, a clothing retail organization, and Redevco, a real estate company owning a portfolio of over €7 billion across 700 properties in Europe. The COFRA story dates back to two brothers, Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer, who founded a textile wholesaling operation in the Netherlands in 1841 that started what is today a worldwide chain of over 1,800 C&A stores. Redevco grew out of the real estate operations of C&A and since 1999 has been an independent organization. Bregal was founded in 2002 to consolidate and grow COFRA's private equity investment activities.