Deals
UK - Charterhouse to acquire Giles from Gresham for £185m
Insurance broker Giles is to be acquired by Charterhouse in a £185m secondary buyout from Gresham Private Equity. Gresham bought Giles in July 2006 in a £45m deal.
UK - Close Ventures invests £1.5m in Opta Sportsdata
Close Ventures has invested £1.5m into Opta Sportsdata Ltd (trading as Opta), a European provider of sports data and analysis to media companies. The investment will be used to help grow sales in the existing business in the UK and the rest of Europe.
UK - Graphite acquires Kurt Geiger from BPE for £95m
Graphite Capital has acquired shoe retailer Kurt Geiger from Barclays Private Equity (BPE) for £95m. BPE had owned Kurt Geiger since Summer 2005 when it paid £46m for the business. Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland provided a debt package to support...
DENMARK - Sunstone and Creandum lead $10m investment in IPtronics
Sunstone Capital and Creandum have together led a $10.25m series-B round in IPtronics, a Danish semiconductor business.
FRANCE – Innovacom invests EUR 2m in Dimelo
Innovacom has invested EUR 2m in Dimelo through its fund Innovacom for a minority share of the company.
UK - Terra Firma and Suez to challenge Montagu takeover of Biffa?
Terra Firma and trade player Suez could mount a last minute takeover bid for waste disposal business Biffa. London-listed Biffa's board recommended a 350p per share offer from Montagu Private Equity and Global Infrastructure Partners earlier this month....
UK - Finance Wales invests £500,000 funding round in pharmaceuticals business
Finance Wales has backed a £500,000 fundraising round for Dee Pharmaceuticals. Dee, based in Wrexham, North Wales, specialises in the sale and marketing of branded prescription pharmaceuticals with particular focus on the misuse of substances of abuse...
UK - Bridgepoint eats up Prêt for £345m and divests Concentric
Bridgepoint has confirmed that it has acquired sandwich chain Prêt A Manger in a deal reported to weigh in at £345m. The investor has also announced that it has sold Concentric, an engineering company it has owned for ten years. Concentric has been...
SWITZERLAND - Lion Capital acquires 32% stake in Hiestand
Lion Capital has agreed to acquire a 32% stake in Hiestand Holding AG, a publicly-traded company listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange. The Hiestand Group is an international service provider of convenience deep-frozen bakery products, in Switzerland, Germany,...
UK - Graphite portfolio company AMS buys Capital Consulting
Graphite Capital-backed Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS) is buying Capital Consulting, consolidating AMS’ leading position in the European market for recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). AMS is the largest independent provider of RPO solutions to blue-chip...
UK - HgCapital sells Clarion Events to VSS for £120.5m
HgCapital has sold independent exhibition and events business Clarion Events Ltd to US private equity investor Veronis Suhler Stevenson for an enterprise value of £120.5m. The sale has generated an IRR of 34% for investors.
UK - Bridgepoint emerges as likeliest buyer for Prêt in £350m deal
According to reports, Bridgepoint is set to buy 200-strong sandwich chain Prêt A Manger from its consortium of vendors for £350m. Rothschilds was hired last year to run a sale process. A price tag of £400m was originally suggested but it is understood...
UK - Vision Capital-backed Portman acquires Fleet Street Travel
Vision Capital portfolio company Portman Travel, a business travel management company, has acquired Fleet Street Travel in a multi-million pound deal. Portman's turnover in 2008 is projected to exceed £400m compared with £296m in 2007. Fleet Street...
BALTIC - BaltCap acquires Interinfo Group for EUR 20-30m
BaltCap has acquired 100% of the Interinfo Group in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, for EUR 20-30m.
FRANCE – Atria backs MBO of Abcd
Atria Capital Partenaires has backed the MBO of Abcd from Affine. Atria will become the majority shareholder in the new holding vehicle Abcdgroup with the management team led, by founders Patrick Canac and Francis Robert, taking a minority stake.
CEE - Arca Capital sells Czech Precision Forge
Slovak Arca Capital has sold its remaining share in Czech Precision Forge, a pilsner engineering company. In April 2003, the fund invested EUR 4.7m in the company.
GERMANY – NORD Holding acquires Teupen
NORD Holding has acquired a majority stake in Teupen Maschinenbau GmbH, a provider of mobile height access technology. The investment will be used to fund further growth of the company, which is based in Gronau and was founded in 1977. The company expects...
CEE - Series of investments in Czech Republic
Arca Capital has invested in Kasa, a Czech online store. Warburg Pincus is currently in talks to buy Atlas, the third largest Czech search engine after acquiring a majority stake in its rival Centrum, last December.
RUSSIA - ASI injects $200,000 in LogneX
Ambient Sound Investments has invested $200,000 in LogneX, a Russian software development company, bringing its stake to 30%.
SWEDEN - Nomura Phase4, TVM and Scottish Widows invest $27m in AstraZeneca spin-out
Nomura Phase4 Ventures has led a $27m round in Albiero, a Swedish biotechnology company spun-out from AstraZeneca. TVM Capital and Scottish Widows have also invested in the business.
GERMANY - Waterland sells sds business services for EUR 46m
Waterland Private Equity Investments has sold sds business services GmbH to Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) Inc for EUR 46m, with ACS also assuming liabilities to purchase sds.
ITALY - Efibanca acquires design company MGM.it
Efibanca-managed Star Bridge Social Responsible Fund has acquired an 80% stake in design company MGM.it.
GERMANY - Ripplewood interested in stricken IKB
According to press reports, US private equity house Ripplewood Holdings is interested in acquiring part or all of IKB bank, which suffered heavily from the subprime crisis. The deadline for nonbinding offers for the bank has been postponed to enable potential...