Buyouts drove the momentum in the European private equity market in the first half of 2010, with activity levels rising 56 per cent to 167 deals from 107 deals in the first half of 2009, a report by Candover shows. In value terms, buyouts quadrupled to EUR20.7bn in H1 2010,

Graphite Capital, a UK mid-market private equity firm, is backing the GBP45m management buyout of Teaching Personnel, the UK’s third largest provider of supply teachers and support staff to schools, from private equity managers RJD Partners. Graphite and the Teaching Personnel management team plan to develop the business through a

Augmentum Capital, a growth capital fund backed by RIT Capital Partners, and Revere Capital Advisors have made an investment in SRL Global, a technology partner to pension funds, insurance companies, endowments and large family offices. Augmentum and Revere led a GBP7.5m funding round in the company in exchange for an

Emerging Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing across the African continent, has held the final close of its ECP Africa Fund III PCC with total commitments of over USD613m. Africa Fund III, one of the largest funds ever raised for investment across the African continent, marks the

New Rise Investments, a real estate syndication company, has launched an e-book entitled “Emerging Real Estate Markets: A Primer for Private Equity Investors”. The e-book can be downloaded at the New Rise Investments website. In this free-book, New Rise Investments gives high net-worth individuals a different alternative to the ups

Colorado State University and CSU Ventures have created CSU Fund I, a private equity investment fund that will help advance early-stage companies associated with CSU. CSU Fund I held its final close on 31 March. The fund has already made one investment and is evaluating several other investment opportunities. The

During the first half of 2010 almost one in ten (9.4 per cent) of UK mergers and acquisitions involved distressed businesses. Of the 1,491 deals completed in the UK, 141 involved companies acquired out of administration or other formal insolvency procedure, according to research by Experian Corpfin on behalf of

More than half (56 per cent) of US venture capital executives are more confident and optimistic about the industry today compared to a year ago, according to a survey by Polachi, a provider of executive search services to technology, private equity and venture capital companies. The survey found executives to

Arma Partners has acted as exclusive financial adviser to Lloyds Development Capital and the Easynet Global Services management team on the GBP100m acquisition of Easynet from BSkyB. Easynet is a telecommunications business that designs and manages data networks for large businesses as well as providing managed hosting and video conferencing

The Blackstone Group made a net loss of USD193.3m in the second quarter of 2010, compared to a net loss of USD164.3m for the second quarter of 2009. For the second quarter of 2010, total segment revenues were USD552.3m, up significantly from USD403.6m for the second quarter of 2009. The