News
UK - New research highlights impact of private equity dividends
Venture capitalists awarded themselves £12.3bn in dividends from British companies they own in the past year, according to recent research.
SWEDEN - Priveq's Hemtex increases market share in Sweden
Hemtex has demonstrated exceptionally strong sales development during the second half of 2005 and has further strengthened its position in the Swedish market for home textiles.
FRANCE - AXA goes it alone with eBuyClub
AXA Private Equity is sole investor in the recent EUR 2m round of funding in Plebicom. Founded in December 2000, following its incubation by Teamlog, Plebicom manages eBuyClub - an online retailing club. It offers its 300,000 members reductions on products...
UK - ICG appoints new non-executive director
The board of Intermediate Capital Group Plc, the specialist European and Asian provider of mezzanine finance, has announced the appointment of Justin Dowley as both a new non-executive director of the company and thereafter independent chairman of the...
FRANCE - Telisma receives further EUR 3m funding
Telisma has completed a EUR 3m fourth round of funding, via its existing investors. Ventech and Innovacom have each invested EUR 1m in the company, while 3i and AGF Private Equity have take equal stakes in the balance. As a result of this third round...
FRANCE - Casino’s cafeteria business up for grabs
Five private equity houses have made bids to acquire the cafeteria business of the supermarket chain Casino, according to a recent article published in Le Figaro. Rothschild has been mandated to run the auction for the sale of the business, which is valued...
FRANCE - Butler turns down Lanson International
Following Butler Capital Partner’s (BCP) decision to abandon its bid to buy Lanson International, Boizel Chanoine stepped in with an offer. The rival champagne producer acquired France’s second largest champagne producer for an estimated EUR 520m,...
UK - Wragge launches PE funds team
Wragge & Co LLP has launched a private equity funds team with the appointment of funds expert Felicity Cole. Felicity joins Wragge & Co from Conyers Dill & Pearman in Bermuda where she headed the Cayman Islands practice. She will work with private equity,...
THE NETHERLANDS - Advent opens shop in Amsterdam
Advent International, the global private equity firm, today announced the opening of its Amsterdam office. The office will be led by Amsterdam-based Teartse Schaper, who will be supported from London by John Singer, an Advent managing director. The Amsterdam...
SWEDEN - MySQL secures $18.5m in series C funding
MySQL AB, a developer of open source databases, has announced the completion of an $18.5 million series C round of financing led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP).
UK - Kennet Venture Partners hires new director
Kennet Venture Partners has announced that it has appointed Eileen Tanghal as director. She will be based in the company’s London office.
UK - Core VCTs II & III raise £15m
Core Growth Capital, the specialist private equity partnership, has announced that Core VCTs II & III, launched in November 2005, have raised £15m to date. The launch of Core VCTs II and III follows the successful closing of Core VCT I in June 2005,...
UK - Interregnum announces acquisition and fundraising
Subject, amongst other things, to obtaining shareholder approval at an EGM, the board of Interregnum has raised a total of £10m (before expenses) via a placing of 151,515,152 shares with institutional investors at a share price of 6.6 pence to increase...
SWEDEN - CapMan appoints Mats Gullbrandsson as partner
Mats Gullbrandsson has been appointed partner at CapMan as of 16 February 2006. Gullbrandsson has previously worked as an investment director in CapMan’s buyout team in Stockholm.
GERMANY - 3i sells German betapharm to Dr Reddy’s Labs
3i has sold German generic pharmaceutical company betapharm Arzneimittel GmbH to Indian Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd.
SPAIN - INVERJAÉN invests in Ambientes Infantiles
Seville-based Ambientes Infantiles has received funding from Inverjaén. The investor has taken a 47.16% equity stake in the firm as a result of the deal.
FINLAND - Finland attracts top foreign researchers
The Finland Distinguished Professor (FiDiPro) funding programme, launched by Tekes and the Academy of Finland, has received a great number of applications for foreign researchers that could start work in Finland from 2007.
FRANCE - Naxicap funds La Fée
Naxicap Partners has financed a EUR 1.5m first round of funding in La Fée through its funds BP Développement and FIP Banque Populaire Proximité Sud-Est. Company founders, Jean-Michel Calsat and Jean-Pierre Braillard, hold the balance. The transaction...
GERMANY - Syndicate invests in Diologue Semiconductor spin-off
GIMV has invested EUR 4.8m in the German technology company Dialog Imaging Systems (DIS), a new spin-off from the publicly listed company Dialog Semiconductor. The investment is part of a total funding round of EUR 22.25m led by 3i. Doughty Hanson Technology...
FINLAND - Sitra appoints Timo Kekkonen as executive director of the Innovation Programme
Timo Kekkonen, director general of the technology department of the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry, has been appointed executive director of Sitra’s Innovation Programme, with effect from 15 February 2006 until the end of 2007.
UK - Goulds Tissues says bless you!
GE Commercial Finance’s Business Finance unit has announced it has helped rescue Goulds Tissues from administration by providing a financing package, saving 120 jobs.
UK - PwC appoints Northern head of corporate finance
PricewaterhouseCoopers has appointed a corporate finance leader for its business in the North of England.
GERMANY - NORD Holding buys wire mesh specialist
In a management buyout involving the management of the company and the Bavarian Beteiligungsgesellschaft, NORD Holding Unternehmensbeteiligungsgesellschaft has acquired Rhodius GmbH domiciled in Weissenburg (Bavaria), Laage (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)...
UK - Quester leads £2.2m Perpetuum funding
Quester has announced that it has led a £2.2m series A funding round in Perpetuum, a UK-based university spinout company.