The Bahamas has signed its 11th tax information exchange agreement and has initialled nine additional agreements in advance of the G20 31 March deadline to meet the internationally agreed tax standard. TIEA negotiations between The Bahamas and Mexico were concluded with the signing of the agreement on 23 February. The

French investment bank Natixis is extending its negotiations with buyout firm Axa Private Equity over the sale of its private equity business for an unspecified period. The group is in talks to offload its iXen Partners, NI Partners and Initiative & Finance Gestion units. Axa Private Equity offered to buy

Sovereign Capital, a UK private equity firm has acquired certain trading assets of drain and sewer cleaning provider Future Environmental Services, the first transaction for the recently backed Euro Environmental Group. Founded in 1999, Future’s customer base includes Balfour Beatty, Scottish Water, Thames Water, Clancy Dowcra, Mouchel and Enterprise.  

Alef Capital, a Cayman Island based investment management firm, has launched the Alef Mena Value Fund. Hossam Shobokshi, head of Alef Capital, says: "The Mena markets offer some of the most interesting value investment opportunities in the world today. There are a good number of well managed and positioned companies

Phillips-Van Heusen has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tommy Hilfiger, which is controlled by funds affiliated with Apax Partners, for total consideration of EUR2.2bn (approximately USD3.0bn) plus the assumption of EUR100m in liabilities. The consideration includes EUR1.924bn in cash and EUR276m in PVH common stock. The combination will create

HarbourVest Global Private Equity, a closed-end investment company listed on Euronext Amsterdam, had an estimated net asset value of USD698m or USD8.41 per share as at 28 February 2010. This represents a 0.1 per cent decrease from the 31 January 2010 estimated NAV per share of USD8.42.  The decrease was

David Bonrouhi, managing director at Calabasas Capital, says 99 per cent of private equity firms add significant value to a company without interfering with day to day operations. While the multi-billion dollar funds get all the attention in the media, there are many private equity groups targeting privately held businesses

Private equity firm OpenGate Capital is acquiring fashion label Nicole Farhi from French Connection Group in a transaction expected to close within the next 90 days. The deal is the third major equity investment by OpenGate in the past 12 months. Under the terms of the agreement, the design house

Stonegate Mortgage Corporation has received an equity investment from Second Curve Partners, an Indianapolis based private equity firm. Stonegate has grown to over 100 employees since 2005 and is ranked as one of the largest mortgage lenders in the State of Indiana. ”We invest in companies that have a solid