Advent Venture Partners has held the final close of a USD120m (GBP75m) venture capital fund, to be called Advent Life Sciences. The fund will be managed by general partners Shahzad Malik and Raj Parekh, and is the first life sciences-focused fund raised by the firm.   The fund will invest

Runa Capital, a new Russian venture capital fund, has made its first investment of USD2m in OnAir3G, a voice-enabled mobile social networking platform. Moscow-based OnAir3G is a start-up founded by online and mobile pioneer Andrey Vasilevsky who also co-founded SmartCom, a developer of navigation software for Symbian, Windows Mobile and

The M&A sector will continue to grow through next year creating an exceptional range of investment opportunities, says Paris-based hedge fund manager Bernheim Dreyfus.  “We believe the recent rebound in mergers and acquisitions is rapidly gaining momentum and we’re forecasting global deal activity to rise by as much as 36

Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management, the pan-African private equity firm, has exited its 11.65 per cent stake in CNIA Saada Assurance, Morocco’s largest auto insurer. The divestment comes as part of CNIA Saada’s initial public offering on the Casablanca Stock Exchange. Kingdom Zephyr made its USD27.5m investment in CNIA Saada via

The Dow Jones US Venture Capital Index measured 1,183.21 at the end of the second quarter 2010, down 18.29 per cent from 31 December 2009.   According to Sand Hill Econometrics, which co-developed the index’s methodology, there were two factors behind the decline.  One is several “disappointing exits” – companies

J.Crew Group, a retailer of apparel, shoes and accessories, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by funds affiliated with TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners.  Millard Drexler will continue as chairman and chief executive and maintain a significant equity investment in J.Crew. Under the terms of

Private equity firm PAI Partners has agreed to buy the Hunkenmoeller lingerie chain from Maxeda Retail Group. Financial terms of the deal were not released. According to the report by Reuters, Hunkemoeller has 500 stores in the Benelux, France and Germany. Last week, Maxeda agreed to sell De Bijenkorf department

Affiliates of Bain Capital Partners have completed the acquisition of retail company Gymboree for USD65.40 per share in cash, or approximately USD1.8bn in the aggregate. The definitive merger agreement was announced on 11 October 2010.  Pursuant to the merger agreement, Giraffe Acquisition, a corporation controlled by Bain Capital, commenced a

Arma Partners, a technology, media and telecommunications M&A advisory firm, has acted as exclusive financial adviser to Gigle Networks on its sale to Broadcom. The transaction is valued at approximately USD83m.   Founded in 2005, Gigle develops system-on-a-chip solutions for home networking over power lines, coaxial cable and phone lines.