UK / Ireland
UK - Gresham sells Alstec for £44.9m
Gresham has made a successful exit from Alstec Group Ltd, a support services business. Gresham made a ruturn of nearly 4x its investment in the sale to Babcock International Group Plc for £44.9m.
UK - CVM sells interest in Applecroft Care
Close Venture Management (CVM) has sold its interests in Applecroft Care Home Ltd in Dover, Kent and Barleycroft Care Home Limited in Romford, Essex, to its partner in the investments.
UK - Katalyst leads funding round for SI Seafarms Ltd
Katalyst Ventures, the private investor group, has led a £633,000 funding round for SI Seafarms Limited (SIS).
UK - Robin Winning joins Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance
Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance has appointed Robin Winning to the role of director of integrated finance, based in London. He joins as a senior member of the Bishopsgate-based team led by Mark Hammond.
UK - Inflexion appoints chairman for Red Commerce
Inflexion has announced the appointment of Andrew Vaughan as chairman of its portfolio company Red Commerce Ltd.
UK - Private equity realises £40bn, says CMBOR research
Statistics on private equity exits from the Centre for Management Buyout Research (CMBOR) suggests that there has been a huge leap in refinancing levels to £19bn as private equity houses seek to realise the returns in their investments. When added to...
UK/GERMANY - Commerzbank strengthens leveraged finance unit
Commerzbank Corporates and Markets (CBCM) has today announced five new appointments to its leveraged finance group in London and Frankfurt.
UK - Bhargava heads 3i’s new focus on outsourcing
3i has appointed Akshaya Bhargava to head up its new focus on the global business process outsourcing (BPO) market.
UK - North West Equity Fund backs Indi.Jo
North West Equity Fund NWEF has provided £50,000 of development finance to Indi.Jo Limited to support increased sales activity. This investment is the first tranche of a proposed total investment of £350,000.
UK - Seven Hills Venture Partners appoints non-executive chairman
Seven Hills Venture Partners, the Edinburgh-based life sciences development company, has appointed Jeremy Delmar-Morgan as non-executive chairman.
UK - Rutland floats H&T on AIM
Rutland Partners has realised its investment in H&T Group Ltd for cash through an AIM listing. The enterprise value of H&T on flotation is £91.9m and the market capitalisation is £54.2m. The proceeds received by Rutland, after costs and management’s...
UK - Apax and Permira to refinance New Look?
The Sunday Times reports that Apax Partners and Permira are likely to enjoy a £350m windfall in a refinancing of New Look, the retailer in which they own a controlling stake.
UK - Advent-backed Sport Five in line for £480m sale
Weekend press reports suggest that the sports agency handling the distribution of television rights to the Euro 2008 football tournament is to be sold for up to £480m.
UK - Challenge Fund invests in cancer research
Sentinel Oncology has received a financial boost from the Challenge Fund Trading Company, part of Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds (CESF).
UK - Octopus appoints new director
Octopus Asset Management has announced that Julian Carr has joined the firm's investment team as a director.
UK - CellCentric receives £1.15m DTI award
CellCentric, a venture-backed epigenetics company, has been awarded £1.15m from the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) technology programme, as part of a £2.3m collaborative programme with three leading research institutions.
UK - Synesis Life receives backing from Warburg Pincus, JP Morgan and RBS
Synesis Life Ltd, a provider of bespoke solutions to the pension and annuity liabilities marketplace, has secured financial backing from JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Warburg Pincus.
UK - £1.4m investment for Tanfield Food Company
The creators of the Phileas Fogg brand have received £1.4m of growth capital from Hotbed, the private investor network, and The North East Co-Investment Fund for their latest venture, the Tanfield Food Company.
UK - MFI a private equity target?
The Daily Mail has reported City rumours that MFI could be approached by a private equity consortium regarding a possible bif for MFI Furniture, the UK kitchen specialist.
UK - Grant Thornton expects M&A to increase
Despite a drop of 42% in the number of foreign companies buying UK businesses in the first three months of 2006, the amount of money being invested on UK acquisitions reached its highest ever level, according to the latest statistics published by the...
UK - Electra buys Travelsphere Group from Hg for £144m
Electra Partners Europe has backed the management buyout of the Travelsphere Group in a transaction valued at £144m.
UK - Barclays Ventures exits Integral UK Ltd
Barclays Ventures and Invex Capital have sold their equity stakes in Integral UK Ltd to the existing management team, in a deal valuing the business at £40m. The exit will generate an IRR in excess of 245%.
UK - Technology invesment on the increase in 2006
Nearly £200m of venture capital was invested in the UK and Irish technology sector in the first quarter of 2006, according to Ascendant, the technology-focused corporate finance advisors.
UK - Candover changes structure of its executive team
Candover, has made several new appointments as part of changes to its executive team, including the creation of two new roles.