High-net-worth investors across Europe, Asia, and South America have placed faith in private markets specialists over the last 18 months, as illiquid investment opportunities were seen as a safer bet during the uncertainty of Covid-19.

Invest Europe, in partnership with the European Investment Fund (EIF), has published ‘The VC Factor - Pandemic Edition’, a new report illustrating European venture capital’s continued strong support for innovative and fast-growing start-ups in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Wynnchurch Capital has acquired Trimlite, a manufacturer and distributor of residential doors and related door products. 

Randy Schwimmer, who heads up senior lending origination and capital markets at Nuveen affiliate Churchill Asset Management, outlines how he experienced the lending market throughout the global Covid-19 crisis and how it keeps evolving in 2021.

By Chris Gauld, director, Equator – A positive repercussion of Covid-19 has been the massive uptick in the interest in healthy activities and healthy living. Exercise equipment sales in the UK have spiked 5,800 percent during the pandemic, while corporate wellbeing investments, ranging from free gym memberships through to mental health and general wellness services, are on the rise too. 

Private equity fund Abac Solutions has closed the sale of Isolana, the Spanish independent distributor of interior finishing and general building materials, to BME Group (owned by Blackstone) after completion of customary regulatory approvals. 

IK Investment Partners: Best Fundraising Firm – Mid-Cap Buyout (fund size >USD3 billion) – Compiling disparate forms of data to provide a clear picture of fund performance and offer information of value to those who require it will be key to succeeding in the 2021 private equity (PE) market. Also, in an environment of remote working, general partners (GPs) need to facilitate comprehensive virtual due diligence exercises to help limited partners (LPs) navigate the uncertainty.

By A Paris — Though the Covid-19 speedbump hit the private capital markets hard, as it did all other sectors, the industry witnessed a steady rise in investor appetite with large amounts of capital waiting to be deployed.

By Melanie Pittas, partner and co-head of financial services & Karen Allan, director, haysmacintyre – The private equity industry faced a number of challenges during the pandemic, with the majority of these arising from one underlying issue: uncertainty. These challenges included valuations, investor pessimism and a downturn in investment activity.

PE firms made GBP10.1 billion of corporate carve-out acquisitions in the UK last year, up from just GBP765 million in 2019 as the Covid-19 pandemic drove more corporates to sell non-core business units, says Mayer Brown, the global law firm.