UK / Ireland
EUROPE - Oak Hill appoints new European head
Oak Hill Advisors has appointed Alexandra Jung as co-head of the firm's European business based in London.
UK - Imperial Innovations leads £2m Cell Medica funding
Imperial Innovations Group has led a funding round worth close to £2m for cellular therapeutics company Cell Medica, alongside private investors.
UK - Frog Capital leads £5m investment into eCommera
Growth capital investor Frog Capital has led a £5m second round of financing for eCommera, a provider of e-commerce services to the retail industry, alongside West Coast Capital.
UK - Octopus Ventures backs £5m GetOptics buyout
Octopus Ventures has backed the £5m merger of contact lens businesses GetLenses and PostOptics, creating the new entity GetOptics.
UK - Blackstone sells Cineworld stake
Blackstone has sold close to two thirds of its 57% stake in UK cinema chain Cineworld, prompting a sharp drop in the company's share price of 13 pence.
Q&A - Neil Harper
Head of European Investments, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners
Playing a long game
The current market requires patience and adaptability. Kimberly Romaine reports
Covenants: need or greed?
Covenants have long formed a part of the funding documentation for any leveraged buyout. The heady days saw them loosen up a bit, with a handful of Europe's largest deals even being structured with none at all (in the US this number was much higher)
Covenant amendment and maturity extension: the new refinancing?
Corinna Mitchell. a partner of Dechert LLP, outlines the options for companies inching towards default, and suggests the quickest solutions may not be best for the long-term health of the company
EUROPE - ML Capital launches alternative assets advisory service
ML Capital has today launched an alternative assets advisory and business solution service, dedicated to advising private equity and hedge fund managers on how to meet current market expectations.
UK- Foresight and Octopus invest £1.5m in iProfile
Foresight Venture Partners and Octopus Group, via its Titan VCT fund, have invested, alongside private investors, in online CV and career profile provider iProfile, in a funding round worth more than £1.5m.
EUROPE - Growth Capital to take the lead in 2010
In a market starved for debt, growth capital investments are in line to become the favoured deal type of 2010, as highlighted in Nordic editor Rikke Eckhoff's interview with Louis Elson, co-founder and managing partner of Palamon Capital Partners. See...
EUROPE – Specialist or generalist ?
"We will see a shift from local generalist funds to global sector specialists," said Simon Havers, BVCA chairman and managing director of Baird Capital Partners Europe. He was speaking at this morning's Capital Creation panel, which debated the future...
UK - ETF et al. invest £10m in Nujira
The Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF), alongside existing backers Bank Invest, 3i, Amadeus, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and private investors, has participated in a £10m series D round of funding for cleantech company Nujira.
UK - Crescent Point Group et al. invest in XConnect
Crescent Point Group, alongside return backers Accel Partners, Grazia Equity and Venrock, has invested $10m in telecom company XConnect, as part of a series B funding round for the company.
UK - PEF board joined by Bonomi and Stathopoulos
UK-based venture philanthropy fund, The Private Equity Foundation (PEF), has appointed senior principal Carlo Umberto Bonomi of Investindustrial and BC Partners' managing partner Nikos Stathopoulos to its board.
EUROPE – Remuneration a hot topic
A central theme this morning at the Capital Creation event was remuneration: As bankers worldwide prepare for their compensation packages to shrink, many in the private equity industry are championing maintaining the high levels of salary and bonus paid...
UK - Sovereign Capital backs £18m acquisition of London Care
Sovereign Capital has backed the £18m buyout of London Care plc, one of the largest domiciliary care businesses in the UK.
US/EUROPE - Oak Hill closes distressed debt fund on $1.13bn
Oak Hill Advisors has surpassed the firm's $750m target for its OHA Strategic Credit Fund, holding a final close on $1.125bn.
GLOBAL - Campbell Lutyens appoints new partner
Placement agent Campbell Lutyens has appointed Richard Allsopp as partner.