Buyouts
UK - Bank of Scotland Corporate backs MBO of Conran Restaurants
Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking has provided a £47m integrated debt and equity package to support the existing management in the buyout of Conran Restaurants. The deal has enabled management, who have invested new cash, to significantly increase their...
UK - Sun Capital acquires Pearl Fittings representing partial exit for Endless
Endless has sold its majority stake in Pearl Fittings Ltd to Sun European Partners, the European adviser to Sun Capital Partners. The deal represents a partial exit for Endless, which first invested in the company in March 2006 since when turnover has...
FINLAND - CapMan acquires industrial maintenance from Fortum
Funds managed by CapMan have signed an agreement with Fortum to acquire its industrial services business unit, a provider of industrial maintenance services, for an undisclosed sum.
UK - Apax launches bid to delist unquote" publisher Incisive Media
Apax Partners has made an offer to acquire global B2B publisher Incisive Media Plc. The deal, which has been recommended by the independent directors of the business, values the London Stock Exchange-listed company’s shares at £199m, and offers shareholders...
GERMANY - Nord Holding takes majority in PDS Group
Nord Holding has acquired a 70% stake in PDS Group, Cologne, a systems integrator for mobile data capture systems. Raimund Müller-Rau, general manager of the company, retains the 30% balance.The vendor is MUK Kapitalbeteiligungsgesellschaft, a joint...
UK - Barclays Private Equity takes stake in Jerrold Holdings for £113.5m
Barclays Private Equity has acquired a significant minority stake in Jerrold Holdings Ltd, a secured lender to the residential and commercial sectors, for £113.5m. The acquisition adds to Barclays Private Equity’s financial services portfolio, (which...
UK - Penta Capital leads £10m equity funding round in retail chain’s 147 UK stores
Internaçionale Holdings Ltd, the Glasgow-headquartered retailer which owns 147 Au Naturale and Internaçionale stores throughout the UK, has been acquired in a management buyout worth £45m. Internaçionale’s senior management team of Norrie Stewart,...
UK - Barclays Private Equity invests £15m in powered machine hirers merger
Barclays Private Equity has invested £15m in the merger of AFI Aerial Platforms and Uplift Platforms, hirers of powered access machines. Barclays Private Equity will hold a significant stake in the enlarged business. AFI Aerial Platforms, based in Wakefield,...
UK - Bowmark Capital acquires Design Objectives
Bowmark Capital has announced the acquisition of Design Objectives Ltd, the UK’s leading supplier of products to the rapidly growing paper crafts market. Paper crafting is principally the design and decoration of home-made greeting cards, scrapbooks...
UK - NTL deal reportedly off
Market souces report that the £10.6bn bid for NTL by a consortium of private equity groups is no longer going to go ahead.
UK - 3i targets Countrywide
Listed estate agency chain Countrywide has confirmed that it has received an approach from 3i. Shares in the company have risen by 13% since Thursday, giving the group a market value of £890m.
GERMANY - Burda Digital Ventures acquires computeruniverse.net
Burda Digital Ventures GmbH, a subsidiary of Hubert Burda Media, has agreed to acquire computeruniverse.net GmbH, Friedrichshof. The vendors are the company's management and private investor Participia Holding, Hamburg. The acquisition is designed to...
AUSTRIA - Nordwind and VMS to revive Cosmos
Specialist turnaround investors Nordwind Capital and Value Management Services (VMS) have together acquired 100% of Cosmos. Under the terms of the deal, VMS will place 100% of the shares it holds in Niedermeyer, which also operates in the consumer electronics...
ITALY - BS Private Equity acquires majority stake in Motovario
BS Private Equity, through its fund BS Investimenti IV, recently acquired a majority stake in Motovario, a manufacturer of power transmission products, from Power Transmission Finance. The consideration has not been disclosed.
GERMANY - Financial consortium exits Vestolit to Strategic Value Partners
Candover has sold PVC-producer Vestolit to Strategic Value Partners, alongside the company's management. A consortium of investors, led by Candover, acquired the company in 1999. Other groups making up the consortium were Chase Capital Partners, Foreign...
FRANCE - Charterhouse and Chequers reach threshold for Elior de-listing
Holding Bercy Investissement (HBI), a holding controlled by Charterhouse and Chequers, has acquired a block of 1,500,000 shares giving it 95.49% of the share capital in Elior.
FRANCE - AXA back the buyout of Champeau for the second time
AXA Private Equity has invested about EUR 10m, via its Small Caps Fund, in Champeau, the leading French manufacturer of wood roof truss systems. This is the second time the buyout house invests in this business.
FRANCE - Astorg completes secondary buyout of Staci
Astorg Partners has taken a 51% stake of marketing and stock logistics company Staci. Initiative & Finance, which had taken part in the de-listing of the business in 2004, has re-invested on this occasion.
UK - HgCapital acquires SHL
HgCapital has acquired SHL, a psychometric testing and assessment company with clients that include Abbey National, Marks & Spencer and Tesco.
UK - Och-Ziff Capital backs take-private of Whitehead Mann
City executive recruitment firm, Whitehead Mann has been acquired by Och-Ziff Capital Management in association with Palladian Investments, an investment vehicle owned by Piers Marmion.
UK - Blackstone only bidder left in final stages of auction for United Biscuits
Blackstone is the only contender left in the £1.7bn auction to acquire United Biscuits (UB), the foods company owned by Cinven, PAI and MidOcean Partners, after Premier Foods was forced to pull out as it could not raise the cash. The blow to the Premier...
SPAIN - Nazca buys El Derecho Editores
According to press reports, Nazca has agreed to buy El Derecho Editores, a company that specialises in online and offline legal information services, from its founders and management team. The purchase, expected to complete before the end of this year,...
FRANCE/ITALY - AXA Private Equity backs purchase of Guaber Household
AXA Private Equity has recently backed the purchase of a 100% stake in Guaber Household. Spotless Group, the holding of French business Eau Ecarlate and owned by its management and AXA, wholly acquired the Italian household cleaning products arm of Guaber...
UK - Octopus Investments acquires Golddigga for £18.5m
The Golddigga fashion brand has been acquired in an £18.5m buyout by its management team and Octopus Investments. Octopus led and arranged the deal, introducing buy-in candidate Daniel Morris who joined the company in June as CEO. The founder and vendor,...