UK / Ireland
EUROPE - YELLing about debt
The painful restructuring of YELL highlights the ills of yesterday's excesses - and shows there is a lot of pain ahead, writes Kimberly Romaine .
UK - Finance Wales reaps 25% IRR through Abriox buy-back
Finance Wales has wholly exited its investment in monitoring instrumentation manufacturer Abriox Ltd through a managment buyback, generating an IRR of between 25-30%.
UK - TPG exits remaining Debenhams stake in £97m deal
Buyout house TPG has sold its remaining 9% stake in department store chain Debenhams to an institutional buyer for about £97m.
UK - Scale and Balderton- backed ScanSafe sold to Cisco
Web security firm ScanSafe, backed by Scale Venture Partners and Balderton Capital Partners, has been sold to IT giant Cisco for approximately USD 183m in cash and retention-based incentives.
Global - Sofinnova Partners sign three biotech deals
French venture investor Sofinnova Partners has participated in funding rounds for three early-stage biotech companies, committing a total of GBP 30m. In the UK, Crescendo raised GBP 4.5m, while US-based Flexion Therapeutics and DNP Green Technology received...
EUROPE – Ogier appoints five
Ogier Group, a provider of offshore legal and fiduciary services, has appointed five new members to its partnership. Jane Pearce, Paul Perris, Nicholas Plowman, Sally Edwards and Edward Mackereth will all join on 1 February 2010.
UK - Octopus' latest investment is Monkey Bizness
Octopus Investments has completed an investment of £2m from its £30m Capital for Enterprise Fund into Monkey Bizness, the UK's largest independent operator of family entertainment centres.
UK - Hellman seeks Gartmore listing
Global buyout house Hellman & Friedman has added its name to the growing list of investors planning a listing of a strong performing portfolio company, with sources close to the firm suggesting that fund management business Gartmore, in which Hellman...
UK - Ropes & Gray opens London office; appoints Bloom
International law firm Ropes & Gray is to open a new office in London this January, which will be headed up by finance lawyers Maurice Allen and Michael Goetz.
UK - Hellman seeks Gartmore listing
Global buyout house Hellman & Friedman has added its name to the growing list of investors planning a listing of a strong performing portfolio company, with sources close to the firm suggesting that fund management business Gartmore, in which Hellman...
UK - MTI makes two investments in two days
MTI Partners has recently completed two transactions from its UMIP Premier Fund, the University of Manchester's technology transfer company, comprising a £1m co-investment in optical technology specialist Lein Applied Diagnostics and a £500,000 investment...
UK - Duke Street’s may fetch £250m for Simple sale
Reports suggest that Duke Street Capital is looking to sell skincare brand Simple for around £250m, with Goldman Sachs leading the process.
UK - CVC could bid for £1.5bn Matalan
UK discount retailer Matalan is formally on the block, with CVC Capital Partners rumoured to be interested in making a bid for the business, which could have an asking price of around £1.5bn.
UK - LGV looks to raise £200m from LGC sale
Mid-market investor LGV has put its portfolio company LGC up for sale, with £200m touted as a possible price tag for the forensics group acquired in 2003 from 3i for £80m.
UK - Ariadne syndicates £2.1m Enrich funding
Venture advisory firm Ariadne Capital has syndicated just over £2m of funding for media distribution firm Enrich Social Productions.
UK - Montagu loses Linpac in restructuring
Montagu Private Equity is to lose control of Linpac, a packaging company it acquired in 2003 for £860m with Deutsche Bank as lenders, in a debt-for-equity swap.
UK - BDO’s Aldridge joins up with Moulton
BDO Stoy Hayward corporate finance partner Mark Aldridge will be leaving the firm at the end of the year to team up with Jon Moulton in turnaround start-up Better Capital, unquote" can exclusively reveal. He will be one of half a dozen that Moulton plans...
EUROPE - PE up 107% in Q3
In the midst of renewed optimism over recovery prospects in the wider economy, private equity investment activity has continued to reverse the slump that had set in at the end of last year, recording a whopping 107% increase to EUR 9.6bn (257 deals) in...
UK - Sovereign's Kinetics completes sixth acquistion
UK based buy-and build specialist Sovereign Capital has completed a sixth add-on for facilities management portfolio company Kinetics Group, acquiring gas installation and maintenance business Thorpete Associates.
UK - Apax et al. to exit Tideway Systems
Apax Partners, Accel Partners, Scottish Equity Partners and Nesta are to exit portfolio company Tideaway Systems Limited, an IT discovery solutions business, through a trade sale to BMC Software.
UK - Imperial Innovations et al. invest £1.2m in BioCeramic
Imperial Innovations and Longbow Capital have led a funding round valued at over £1m for bioactive materials company BioCeramic Therapeutics, alongside existing backers Comvest and the Esmee Fairbarn Foundation.
GLOBAL - Blackstone investors look to raise commitments
Reports suggest that investors in Blackstone's sixth fund, Blackstone Capital Partners VI, are looking to increase the size of their original commitments to the vehicle, which launched in January 2008.